From early 1358 (1979), the Iraqis began sending various types of light arms to destabilize Iran's borders and incite the local populace. They secretly smuggled machine guns, handguns, grenades, anti-personnel mines, vehicles, and even RPG-7s across Iran's borders by night, distributing them among local nomads and villagers in the border areas and surrounding Hoveyzeh either free of charge or at artificially low prices.
The people, who had suffered under the tyranny of the Shah's regime for years and whose dream was to possess rifles and weapons, became armed on a wide scale. The Iraqi Ba'ath Party organized intelligence networks among some of the illiterate and poor people of the region, seeking to meet its intelligence needs by distributing essential provisions such as cooking oil, rice, and soap powder.
I remember well that in that same year, 1979 (1358 SH), Sayyid Hossein Alamolhoda and some other local Khuzestani forces mounted an exhibition in Ahvaz to expose the interventions of Saddam's regime. In this exhibition, undeniable documents and evidence of intelligence interference, espionage, and sabotage by the Iraqis and the Ba'ath Party in Basra were displayed, receiving widespread acclaim. This exhibition clearly demonstrated the extent to which the Iraqis were meddling in Khuzestan's internal affairs and inciting tribes and villagers to revolt and create chaos within the fledgling Islamic Republic.
Source: The book 'Report to the Soil of Hoveyzeh'; memoirs of General Younes Sharifi; Soore Mehr Publications