The MEK-Iraqi operation Eternal Light would occur on 26 July 1988, six days after Ayatollah Khomeini had officially announced his acceptance of the UN brokered ceasefire resolution.

[1] Both Iran and Iraq had accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, which would end the war on 8 August 1988.

However, the Iraqi-backed Mujahedin-e-Khalq militant group seized the opportunity to attack central part of the Iran-Iraq border before the ceasefire came into effect.

When the Iranian troops moved to fight off the MEK attack in northern Iraq, the opposition Iranian militant group Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), supported by Iraqi air power, would launch a large scale incursion into the central portion of Iran, aiming towards the heart of Iran.

The MEK under their leader Massoud Rajavi harbored the hope that the attack would lead to a general uprising against the Islamic government of Ayatollah Khomeini.

On 26 July 1988, the MEK, with the support of the Iraqi military, started Operation Forough Javidan (Eternal Light) in central Iran.

[1][10] At the latter, a large number of wounded Iranian soldiers were dragged from the city hospital and shot in the courtyard by the NLA forces.

[1] The MEK met scant resistance from the limited numbers of Revolutionary Guards, which were promptly defeated, pushing 145 km (90 mi) deep into Iran towards the provincial capital city of Kermanshah.

[citation needed] Iran's Kurdish fighters did slow the advance, allowing time for the Iranians to prepare their counteroffensive.

Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantoms[1] bombed Mujahedeen convoys on the Kermanshah highway, followed by Army Aviation helicopters using anti-tank missiles.

The Iranian army and Revolutionary Guard then moved north from Khuzestan, encircling and suppressing the remaining resistance in the city of Kerend-e Gharb on 29 July 1988.