When the Islamic Revolution prevailed on February 11, 1979 (22 Bahman 1357), SAVAK agents and gendarmes fled in haste and went into hiding everywhere. But shortly thereafter, the Ba'athists and Iraqi mercenaries made their appearance. Almost from the beginning of 1358 (1979), alongside the actions of Iraq-affiliated groups—including the 'Khalq-e Arab' faction—enemy proxies began planting landmines in border areas and villages around Hoveyzeh. This caused immense problems for nomadic tribes and particularly the livestock of the villagers.
During those days, many water buffaloes and sheep belonging to Arab villagers and nomads stepped on mines and perished. An Arab rural family loves a water buffalo as much as their own child because a family's entire livelihood often relies on just one or two buffaloes; naturally, losing a buffalo to a landmine brought immense economic hardships upon the defenseless Arab villagers—hardships inflicted by the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. In addition, Iraqi mercenaries blew up a couple of bridges and roads in border areas and Hoveyzeh.
One of the enemy's intelligence operations, which unfortunately we did not notice at the beginning due to our youth and lack of experience, was intelligence gathering under the guise of sending nomads and families to the border areas of Hoveyzeh. A family would arrive from Iraq and settle in one of the border villages between Iran and Iraq. However, one or two of the men or women in this family were actually Iraqi spies and informants. They interacted and traded normally with the local villagers and neighboring villages, and under this cover, they carried out their espionage mission to perfection. For example, they scouted roads, bridges, water reservoirs, and sensitive military and civilian positions of Iran in border regions and even deep into Hoveyzeh and Susangerd, and by crossing the border at night, they transferred the gathered intelligence to the Ba'ath Party of Iraq.
Unfortunately, one or two families who were apparently expelled from Iraq during the era of Hasan al-Bakr and had settled in Hoveyzeh also turned out to be spies for Iraq and the Ba'ath Party. These two families had been expelled from Iraq during the Shah's era and had received kindness and comprehensive support from the warm-hearted Arab people of Hoveyzeh. But they bit the hand that fed them. It was only later that we realized some members of these two families were spies and mercenaries of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. The people of Hoveyzeh gave them homes, shops, and money, and offered every help they could. Yet they answered this kindness of the Hoveyzeh people by spying for the enemy and passing intelligence!
When the war broke out, these two families joined the invading forces, packed up their lives from Hoveyzeh, and migrated to Iraq. It was only then that we realized how badly we had been duped and how ungrateful and treacherous these uninvited guests had been.
Source: The book 'Report to the Soil of Hoveyzeh'; memoirs of General Younes Sharifi; Soore Mehr Publications