---
title: 'Ya abna'' al-jaysh al-''iraqi (O Sons of the Iraqi Army): Iranian Army leaflet'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iran-army-leaflet-to-iraqi-army-1981/
description: Arabic-language leaflet addressed to Iraqi soldiers under the Iranian state emblem.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Ya abna' al-jaysh al-'iraqi (O Sons of the Iraqi Army): Iranian Army leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iran-army-leaflet-to-iraqi-army-1981.png)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iran-army-leaflet-to-iraqi-army-1981.png)

# Ya abna' al-jaysh al-'iraqi (O Sons of the Iraqi Army): Iranian Army leaflet

Arabic-language leaflet addressed to Iraqi soldiers under the Iranian state emblem. It calls Saddam Hussein's government 'tattered' and its Arab-nationalist slogans false, ties it to the 'Zionist entity' and to Sadat 'the traitor', and urges the Iraqi army to do as the Egyptian army did and remove him.

- **Date:** 1981
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran (leaflet signed 'Army of the Islamic Republic')
- **Region:** [Middle East and North Africa](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=middle-east-north-africa)
- **Country:** [Iran](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=iran)
- **Medium:** [Leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=leaflet)
- **Issuer type:** [Military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=military)
- **Regime:** [Islamic Republic of Iran](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=islamic-republic-of-iran)
- **Leader:** [Ruhollah Khomeini](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=ruhollah-khomeini)
- **Audience:** [Enemy forces](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=enemy-forces)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [Iran Iraq War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=iran-iraq-war)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (scan from military.ir, Iranian armed forces gallery)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iranian_military_propaganda_aimed_at_Iraqi_soldiers_(1).png), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain per Commons (PD-Iran); Iran has no U.S. copyright relations (Circular 38A) Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, via military.ir and Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

Original (Arabic) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[Iranian state emblem]

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

يا أبناء الجيش العراقي

ان نظام صدام المتهرئ الذي يتشدق بشعارات القومية العربية وينادي زورا وبهتانا بدعم القضية الفلسطينية، يمد يد الصداقة والمودة الى الكيان الصهيوني. وما تطمينات الكيان الصهيوني لصدام بعدم قصف انبوب النفط المزمع انشاؤه بين العراق والاردن والذي سينتهي الى ميناء العقبة الا دليل على زيف شعارات النظام العراقي.

وقد اعترف صدام في خطابه الاخير بضرورة التعاون مع شاه حسين الاردني الذي لطخ يده بدماء الفلسطينيين في ايلول الاسود في هذا المجال.

ان صدام يحاول الان وبشتى السبل اطالة امد حياته بالتعاون مع الكيان الصهيوني وامريكا وهو يسير الان في الطريق الذي سلكه السادات الخائن. ومثلما قام الجيش المصري بتصفية السادات ، فان الجيش العراقي مدعو الان بعدم السماح لصدام بارتكاب هذه الخيانة الكبرى ، وعليه ان يعجل في ضربته القاضية من اجل تحرير العراق من دنس النظام البعثي .

جيش الجمهورية الاسلامية
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
[Iranian state emblem]

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

O sons of the Iraqi army:

The tattered regime of Saddam, which declaims the slogans of Arab nationalism and proclaims, falsely and slanderously, support for the Palestinian cause, extends the hand of friendship and affection to the Zionist entity. The Zionist entity's assurances to Saddam that it will not shell the oil pipeline planned between Iraq and Jordan, which will end at the port of Aqaba, are nothing but proof of the falsity of the Iraqi regime's slogans.

Saddam admitted in his last speech the necessity of cooperating in this field with Shah Hussein of Jordan, who stained his hands with the blood of the Palestinians in Black September.

Saddam is now trying by all means to prolong his life by cooperating with the Zionist entity and America, and he is now walking the path that the traitor Sadat took. Just as the Egyptian army liquidated Sadat, the Iraqi army is now called upon not to allow Saddam to commit this great treason, and it must hasten its decisive blow in order to liberate Iraq from the filth of the Ba'thist regime.

Army of the Islamic Republic
```

Read from a 620 px photograph of the leaflet; a few words (for example 'المتهرئ' and 'لطخ') were resolved from context and could be misread. The leaflet's own spelling and punctuation are kept. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← Payam: Ay Iraniyan (Message: O Iranians): Iraqi armed forces notice with image of Imam Ali](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iraq-notice-to-iranians-imam-ali-1980/) [Apartheid Kills: Stop the Tour, Day of Shame (Wellington protest poster, 1981) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/apartheid-kills-stop-the-tour-wellington-1981/)

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- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)