Abdul Rasul Zarin

Abdolrasoul Zarrin (21 March 1941 – 1 March 1984) was an Iranian sniper in the Iran-Iraq War who was killed during the second phase of Operation Kheibar. His military service also included an 80-month presence in the 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran. He is considered to be the most famous Iranian sniper, but there is considerable doubt about the exact number of successful shots he made.

Life Abdul Rasul Zarrin was born on 21 March 1941 in a village on the outskirts of Dehdasht, Kohgiluyeh. His father died when he was four, and his mother died when he was six. He was then raised by his uncle. As a teenager, he found his paternal relatives in Isfahan and settled with them. Abdul Rasul eventually opened a clothing store near the "Baba Ali Asgar Mosque" in Isfahan and began selling clothes. He started a family in Isfahan at the age of 20 and had seven children. He joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Isfahan when the 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran began and was initially sent to the west of the country. After a while, he went to the war zones in the south and participated in operations alongside Husayn Kharrazi and Yahya Rahim Safavi. He was killed on 1 March 1984, in the second phase of the Khyber Operation.

Number of shots Zarrin is confirmed as having 67 successful shots, but oral histories have claimed much higher numbers.

In culture Many books have been written about Abdolrasoul Zarrin and television documentaries have been produced about him by Iranian media. In 2020, a documentary titled The Single-Person Battalion, directed by Dariush Yari, was broadcast on Channel One. Hadi Moghadamdoost played the role of Zarrin in this documentary.

In 2020, The Sniper, a film directed by Ali Ghaffari and produced by Ebrahim Asghari and the Ravayat-e Fath Foundation, was released. The film was first screened at the 39th Fajr Film Festival and won the Crystal Simorgh for Best Film from a National Perspective and Best Field Special Effects. Mehdi Tehrani, a film critic and lecturer, wrote of the film: