General Abbas Doran (1950 - 1982) was both a celebrated Iranian fighter pilot and a national hero. During his time at the IRIAF, he led more than 120 strikes on Iraq and by 1982 he had flown over 2500 sorties and more than 900 combat missions. 

 

Prior to his combat training in the F-4 Phantom, Doran received his basic flying training at Columbus AFB, Mississippi. He was a member of the Undergraduate Pilot Training Program Class, graduating in the fall of 1972.

 

With the help of his wingman and the rest of the IRIAF, he virtually destroyed the Iraqi Navy in October 1980 during Operation Morvarid. One of his greatest values to the IRIAF was as the mission planner; according to the IRIAF, 90 percent of his missions in Iraq were successful.

 

In 1982, Saddam Hussein planned to host the 7th Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Baghdad to show that Iraq still enjoyed stability during the ongoing war. The conference was scheduled to take place at Baghdad’s Al-Rashid Hotel and would have been a big blow to Iran, if Saddam Hussein were to have held it successfully. Iran tried to show that Baghdad was not safe and IRIAF planned to hit Baghdad by plane for the first time. This was to be Doran’s last flight. He flew at noon on Wednesday, July 21, 1982 and bombed the Al-Doura refinery in Baghdad before carrying out a martyrdom attack on the, days before it was scheduled to open. While flying over the Iraqi capital he fell into a trap and his F-4E was hit. Knowing that he was the most wanted pilot in Iraq and also the key IRIAF mission planner, he chose to die crashing his plane into the Al-Rashid Hotel. His actions resulted in the summit being held in New Delhi instead of Baghdad.

 

After the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War, General Doran became a hero in the IRIAF and was beloved by the general public for exceptional bravery he showed, especially in his home town of Shiraz.