TEHRAN – Iranian filmmaker Hamed Hadian has made a documentary portraying how General Qassem Soleimani, the martyred Quds Force chief, led the massive operation to break the 89-day siege of the northern Iraqi town of Amerli by the ISIS terrorists.

He attended a press conference held on Tuesday at the School of Hajji Qassem Foundation in Tehran to brief the media about the documentary entitled “360° Siege”.

He made two trips to Iraq visiting the regions where General Soleimani carried out the operations. He also held meetings with a number of members of the Iraqi forces that accompanied General Soleimani in the operation.

“The operation in breaking the siege of Amerli was totally led by Hajji Qassem, and for the first time, Iranian and Iraqi forces participated in an operation under his supervision,” Hadian said.

“Supplying people in the town with food was a difficult task, and saving their lives was the first priority in the operation, which required over a month’s planning and was carried out in a day. In order to lead the operation, Hajji Qassem was transported by helicopter to the town, which was under a 360-degree siege,” he added.

For his documentary, Hadian conducted interviews with a number of people who had participated in the operation. It was very difficult to find the people, he said.

“One of our biggest challenges in the interviews was uncovering the facts, since most of the views on Hajji Qassem and their accounts of the operation were exaggerated,” Hadian noted.

“It was very hard to find the truth, however, we listened to all stories, putting them in the documentary, which is close to 90 percent of the truth,” he added.

Twenty percent of the documentary features archival footages of the operation, which are being shown for the first time.  

Amerli, an Iraqi town of Shia Turkmen located in the Tooz District of Saladin Governorate, was besieged by the ISIS terrorists from June 2014, cutting off access to food, electricity and water. 

On August 31, the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the IRGC under the commandership of Qassem Soleimani, joined the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and the Popular Mobilization Units – Hashd al-Shaabi, and broke the siege in an operation that was described by some top analysts as Iraq’s biggest victory against ISIS.
  
Hadian also made the documentary “Liberation of Amerli” in 2020 to underline the key role the Quds Force played in breaking the siege of Amerli. 

However, he said that in the documentary, he had to ignore the role of General Soleimani in the operation for unspecified reasons.

Photo: Director Hamed Hadian (R) and graphic designer Komeil Karimi pose after unveiling a poster for the documentary “360° Siege” at the School of Hajji Qassem Foundation in Tehran on November 30, 2021. (Tasnim/Mohammad-Hossein Movahedinejad)

MMS/YAW