On September 20, 1980, in the southwestern Iranian city of Khorramshahr, the first rays of the sun appeared from behind the palm tress on the bank of the Karun River.

Hossein, a worker at the Khorramshahr Port and Shipping Organization, and his wife Zahra were preparing their children Ali and Ahmad for school.

It was the first day of school. Overwhelmed with joy, the brothers were walking to their school in the city center.

With their hope, unawares, the children were building a better future for their poor family.

Meanwhile, in Shalamcheh, on the Iranian side of the border, 25 kilometers away from Khorramshahr, the commanders of Iraq’s Third and Fifth Armored Divisions were studying the operation plan under Baathist General Sa’ad Sheetah.

Sheetah, one of the cruelest high-ranking officers of the Baath Party, was lost in dreams of capturing Khorramshahr and the subsequent boost to his military career.

“Fire!” Sheetah shouted over the wireless. Within a few minutes over 150 batteries began to bombard Khorramshahr and its people with artillery shells.

The first shell hit the ground near Ali and Ahmad. Blood stained their books.

Many people, especially young children, began aimlessly running back and forth in the confusion.

Later the same day, artillery destroyed Hossein’s humble house and his wife Zahra and his 4-year-old daughter Sara were buried in the ruins.

Inflamed by a desire for revenge, Hossein took a rifle and joined the other men building barricades on the outskirts of the city to fight against the Iraqi tanks.

After seven days of bloody fighting, he was hit by a tank shell, and then none remained of his five-member family.

Because of the extensive civilian resistance, the ruthless Iraqi commanders extended the assault by land and air and the targets were most often ordinary people.

With their light weapons, the people of Khorramshahr succeeded in blocking the advance of the well-equipped Iraqi Army for nearly 40 days.

The Iraqi forces suffered 7000 casualties during these battles and their morale declined.

Finally, on October 26, 1980, utilizing extensive firepower and advanced military technology, the Iraqi forces occupied Khorramshahr.

After the fall of Khorramshahr, the Iraqi Army advanced to the neighboring city of Abadan, but met stronger resistance there and was only able to mount a siege of the city.

During the first year of the war, the international community observed the massacre of Iranian citizens in silence. The UN Security Council only issued one resolution, and even that resolution did not condemn the Iraqi invasion.

As Iraq had occupied vast swaths of Iranian territory near the Iraqi border, Iran conditioned a ceasefire on the withdrawal of Iraqi forces.

Finally, military operations started to force the Iraqi Army out of Iranian territory.

Operation Thamin al-A’emmah, which began on September 27, 1981 in the north of the encircled city of Abadan, totally destroyed Iraq’s Third Armored Division. Abadan harbor was liberated from the siege, and the Iraqi commander General Sheetah was killed.

On April 30, 1982, a major operation to liberate Khorramshahr, the Beit-ul-Moqaddas Operation, started.

Iranian forces encircled the occupied city of Khorramshahr and after a courageous battle, liberated the city from 578 days of Iraqi occupation on May 24, 1982.

The liberation of Khorramshahr turned the tide and resulted in successive losses for Saddam’s army.

From its superior position, Iran won brilliant victories despite all the financial and military assistance provided to the Iraqi regime by the United States, certain European countries, and the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.

In response, the U.S. and some other Western countries tried to prevent the fall of Saddam by facilitating Iraq’s chemical weapons program.

Saddam’s use of these weapons of mass destruction against Iranian border towns resulted in tens of thousands of military and civilian casualties.

Almost nineteen years has passed since the end of the Iran-Iraq war and Saddam has been punished for his war crimes, but the question remains as to who will take responsibility for the blood of Hossein’s family and the tens of thousands of other Iranian families. Perhaps the United States and Europe -- which provided such significant financial and military support to Saddam -- can answer this question.