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By ROBERT MATAS The Globe and Mail, Canada VANCOUVER -- Iraqi soldier Najah Aboud always thought an angel from heaven saved his life 20 years ago during a decisive battle in the Iran-Iraq war. Lying in a bunker under two dead bodies, soaked in blood from shots to his head and arm, he prayed to Allah. An Iranian soldier -- actually a 14-year-old paramedic who had run away from home to join the army in order to escape his father -- answered those prayers, saving the life of his sworn enemy and then disappearing from his life. Mr. Aboud never expected to see his saviour again, especially not in Canada. But Mr. Aboud, 50, met the Iranian soldier, 34-year old Zahed Haftlang, recently in the lobby of a Vancouver agency dedicated to helping victims of torture. Mr. Aboud, a prisoner of war in Iran for 17 years after being captured in 1982, came to Canada 2½ years ago. Mr. Haftlang, a prisoner of war in Iraq after being captured in 1988, came to Canada in July, 2001. Both men said they are in Canada as refugees and waiting for their immigration papers. The eight-year Iraq-Iran war began on Sept 22, 1980, when Iraqi armed forces invaded western Iran in an attempt to seize control of the oil-producing province of Khuseztan. Iraq had some success in the early months of the war, until Tehran launched Operation Undeniable Victory in March, 1982, forcing an Iraqi retreat. A turning point in the war came in May, 1982, when Iranian forces regained control of the area around the city of Khorramshahr. In Vancouver this fall, Mr. Aboud and Mr. Haftlang initially exchanged pleasantries awkwardly in English. Realizing they both spoke the same language, Mr. Haftlang asked Mr. Aboud where he learned Persian. Mr. Aboud told him about being injured on the Iranian front at Khorramshahr and being taken to Iran as a prisoner of war. Mr. Haftlang said he had been on the same battlefield. Mr. Aboud was reluctant to pursue the conversation, the memories of war and torture too painful to recall. To be polite, he made a few comments. To his amazement, Mr. Haftlang filled in the blanks. "I could not believe his words," Mr. Aboud said yesterday, speaking in Persian. His comments during the interview were translated by Vancouver resident Mohammad Ghaem-Maghami. "When he started telling me the rest of my story, I was thinking, I just cannot believe this. He must know the guy who helped me." Mr. Haftlang told him more and suddenly Mr. Aboud grabbed him. "He just started hugging me and we started crying together," Mr. Haftlang said, also in Persian. "And now, I know his father and his little brother, and he had a nice little party for me at his place," Mr. Haftlang added. Mr. Aboud said he was in his mid-20s, working at a Baghdad restaurant when the government ordered him into the Iraqi armed forces. Six months later, he was in a tank at the front. He recalled Iran's massive attack at Khorramshahr on May 24 and May 25, 1982. Placing his finger to his lip, he said he had trouble talking about what he saw. "I'm still shaking inside when I think about it," he said. The bombs fell for hours, he said, and corpses were lying everywhere. When the bombing stopped, he ran with his tank crew into a nearby bunker. Iranian soldiers with a machine gun followed and gunned them down. Mr. Aboud said dead bodies fell on top of him. He was hit in the head and arm. In pain, he prayed to Allah to survive. He recalled more soldiers came through the bunker. Someone touched him and realized he was not dead. An Iranian soldier dragged him to another bunker and left him there. The Iranian soldier returned later with another who wanted to kill him. Mr. Aboud could not understand what they were saying, but he saw the first soldier take a hand grenade and, it seemed to him, threaten to blow them all up. Then the two soldiers left and he passed out. A few days later, he woke up in a hospital. He was convinced the soldier was an angel who had intervened to save him. Mr. Haftlang said he did not feel strongly about the Iraqis when he ran away from home. He joined the army because he wanted to fight, he said. "I did not really think who they were. At first, I had no feeling about them. Later, I started to hate them after I saw some of my friends die," he said. His job as a paramedic was to help injured Iranian soldiers. Iraqis were to be killed. "There was no time or facilities to care for the injured [Iraqis], so we were supposed to just kill them," he said. Mr. Haftlang said he heard Mr. Aboud moaning when he stepped into the bunker. He saw a Koran in Mr. Aboud's pocket with a picture of what he assumed was the Iraqi soldier's wife and daughter. The paramedic had joined the armed forces just two months earlier. "I put the Koran back in his pocket," Mr. Haftlang said. "He was begging me not to kill him and I felt sorry for him, so I decided to help." ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca WANT TO check out which mailing lists you could subscribe to? Send a blank email message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========================================================================
