The H-3 airstrike was a surprise air attack by the persian Air Force during the homeland–Iraq War on 4 April 1981 against the airbases of the Iraqi Air Force at the H-3 Air Base in western Iraq. The Iranians destroyed at least 48 Iraqi aircraft on the ground with no losses of their own.The IRIAF claimed it destroyed a total of three Antonov An-12BP transports, a Tupolev Tu-16 bomber, four Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s, five Sukhoi Su-20/22s, eight Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23s, two Dassault Mirage F1EQs (delivered only weeks earlier) and four helicopters,as well as damaging eleven others beyond repair, including two Tu-16 bombers.
After entering the IIAF and training to fly jets in the US, he returned to Iran and served in Vahdati AFB in Dezful in the southwest. There he served in the 202nd tactical fighter squadron (TFS) under Captain (later Major General) A. Minousepehr, flying the F-86 Sabre jet fighter. He went on to become an instructor in the newly established Fighter Weapons School at Vahdati. He also became an instructor pilot and member of the IIAF Golden Crown precision aerobatic team, led by Colonel (later General) Jahanbani.
