On Saturday, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards launched a drone attack on Israeli targets, according to Iranian English-language press TV and Iranian sources. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Corps’ Quds force, was killed on April 1 in an airstrike on Iranian diplomatic grounds in Syria’s capital, Damascus, which Iran blamed on Israel, causing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to swear retaliation. Here are some facts about Iran’s primary military force, the IRGC, which has its own army, navy, air force, and intelligence wing:
What is IRGC?
The IRGC was established immediately after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to safeguard the Shi’ite Muslim clerical rule system and serve as a counterweight to the regular military forces.
It reports to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The IRGC’s military is believed to be 125,000 strong, consisting of army, naval, and air units. It also leads the Basij religious militia, a volunteer paramilitary organization loyal to the clerical elite that is frequently used to quell anti-government events.
During the 1980s war, Basijis carried out “human wave” attacks on Iraqi troops. During peacetime, they uphold Shi’ite Iran’s Islamic social codes. Analysts estimate that Basij volunteers number in the millions, with one million active members.
The Quds Force is the IRGC’s overseas wing, and it has significant influence over its affiliated militias throughout the Middle East, from Lebanon to Iraq, Yemen, and Syria. In recent years, its fighters have battled alongside President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war and Iraqi security forces in their fight against Islamic State extremists.
Its main commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani, was assassinated by the US in a drone operation in Iraq in 2020, raising worries about a massive conflict.
The IRGC, which the US considers a terrorist organization, has long worked to influence the Middle East through Iran’s objectives. In 1982, it established the heavily armed Shi’ite political movement Hezbollah in Lebanon as a means of exporting Iran’s Islamic Revolution and fighting Israeli forces that had invaded Lebanon that year.
Hezbollah is currently a strong military force involved in regional conflicts.
What are the responsibilities of the IRGC?
The IRGC is in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile development, which experts consider to be the greatest in the Middle East.
The Guards have used the missiles to strike Sunni Muslim militants in Syria and Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq. The US, European powers, and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for a 2019 missile and drone attack that devastated the world’s largest oil processing complex in Saudi Arabia, however, Iran denied any involvement.
Former Revolutionary Guards officers have prominent roles in Iran’s system, including the administration and parliament. The majority of President Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet is made up of former IRGC officers.
The IRGC’s responsibility to protect revolutionary values has led it to speak out when it believes the system is under threat.
Following the 1980s conflict with Iraq, the IRGC got deeply involved in Iran’s reconstruction. It has now broadened its economic interests to include a large network of billion-dollar firms ranging from construction and telecommunications to oil and gas exploration.