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Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
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This article is about the organization in Iran. For the Libyan organization see Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (Sepáh e Pásdárán e Enqeláb e Eslámi) is an ideologically motivated branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran's military. In Iran the name is commonly shortened to Sepáh e Pásdárán (Army of Guardians), Pásdárán e Enqeláb (???????? ??????) (Revolutionary Guardians), or simply Pásdárán (????????) ("Guardians") or Sepah (Army).
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Encyclopedia
This article is about the organization in Iran. For the Libyan organization see Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (Sepáh e Pásdárán e Enqeláb e Eslámi) is an ideologically motivated branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran's military. In Iran the name is commonly shortened to Sepáh e Pásdárán (Army of Guardians), Pásdárán e Enqeláb (???????? ??????) (Revolutionary Guardians), or simply Pásdárán (????????) ("Guardians") or Sepah (Army). The present Chief Commander of the Guardians is Mohammed Ali Jafari, who was preceded by Yahya Rahim Safavi. Like many young Iranians during the 1980-88 Iran–Iraq War, Iran's current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a member of the Army of Guardians, specifically as a member of the Basij militia.
English-speaking media usually use the term Iranian Revolutionary Guards ("IRG"). In the US media, the force is usually referred to as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps ("IRGC"), although this force is rarely described as a "corps" by non-US media.
The Pásdárán have their own ministry, and are thought to number as many as 120,000 with their own small naval and air units. They also control the Basij volunteer force.
Size and structure
| Branches & Manpower | | Ghods Force | estimated 2,000 or anywhere from 3,000 to 50,000 | | Basij | 90,000 full-time, 300,000 reservists, 11,000,000 potential strength (2005 est.) | | IRGC Navy | 20,000 (2005 est.) | | IRGC Air Force | (unknown) | | IRGC Ground Forces | | | Commander in Chief | | Mohammed Ali Jafari |
The IRG is separate from, and parallel to, the other arm of the Iran's military, which is called Artesh (another Persian word for army). The IRG is a combined arms force with its own ground forces, navy, air force, intelligence, and special forces. It also controls Basij force, which has a potential strength of eleven million, although Basij is a volunteer-based force, and consists of 90,000 regular soldiers and 300,000 reservists. The IRG is officially recognized as a component of the Iranian military under Article 150 of the Iranian Constitution.
The IISS Military Balance 2007 says the IRGC has 125,000+ personnel and controls the Basij on mobilisation. It estimates the IRGC Ground and Air Forces are 100,000 strong and is 'very lightly manned' in peacetime. It estimates there are up to 20 infantry divisions, some independent brigades, and one airborne brigade.
The IISS estimates the IRGC Naval Forces are 20,000 strong including 5,000 Marines in one brigade of three or four Marine Battalions., and are equipped with some coastal defence weapons (some HY-2/CSS-C-3 Seersucker SSM batteries and some artillery batteries) and 50 patrol boats (including 10 Chinese Houdang fast attack craft). The IRGC air arm, says the IISS, controls Iran's strategic missile force and has an estimated one brigade of Shahab-1/2 with 12-18 launchers, and a Shahab-3 unit. The IISS says of the Shahab-3 unit 'estimated 1 battalion with estimated 6 single launchers each with estimated 4 Shahab-3 strategic IRBM.'
The elite Ghods Force, sometimes described as being the successor to the Shah's Imperial Guards, is estimated to be 2000-5000 in number.
Senior Commanders
- Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari (Commander-in-chief)
- Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi (Chief of the Joint Staff)
- Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Zahedi (Revolutionary Guards' Ground Forces)
- Brigadier General Hossein Salami (Revolutionary Guards' Air Force)
- Rear Admiral Morteza Saffari (Revolutionary Guards' Navy)
- Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi (Commander-in-chief of the Mobilized Basij forces)
- Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani (Ghods Force) General Suleimani was responsible for negotiating several accords between Iraqi political figures.
- Brigadier General Abdol-Ali Najafi (Secret unit)
History
The force's main role is in national security, responsible for internal and border security, as well as law enforcement. It is also responsible for Iran's missile forces. The operations of the IRGC are geared towards asymmetric warfare and less traditional duties. These include the control of smuggling, control of the Strait of Hormoz, and resistance operations. Thus, the role of the IRG will complement the more traditional role of the regular Iranian military with the two forces operating separately and focusing on different operational roles.
The IRG were formed in May 1979 as a force loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but later became a full military force alongside the army in the Iran–Iraq War. It was infamous for its human wave attacks such as during Operation Ramadan, an assault on the city of Basra.
Iran–Iraq War
Lebanon Civil War
During the Lebanese civil war, the IRG allegedly sent troops to train fighters in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
In Lebanon, political parties had staunch opinions regarding the AGIR's presence. Some, mainly the Christian militias such as the Lebanese Forces, Phalanges, and most of the right-wing Christian groups declared war on the AGIR, claiming they violated Lebanese sovereignty. Others were neutral. Groups such as the PSP and Mourabiton did not approve of their presence, but to serve political alliances they decided to remain silent on the matter.
2006 plane crash
In January 2006, an IRG Falcon carrying fifteen passengers crashed near Oroumieh, killing all 15, including 12 senior IRG commanders. Among the dead was General Ahmad Kazemi, the IRG ground forces commander.
Influence
Politicial
As an elite group, members of Pasdaran have influence in Iran's political world. President Ahmadinejad is a veteran of the corp which he joined in 1985 serving first in military operation in Iraqi Kurdistan before leaving the front line to take charge of logistics. Nearly one third of the members elected to Iran's majlis in 2004 are "Pásdárán" according to analyst Roy Olivier.
Economic activity
The IRGC are thought to control around a third of Iran's economy through a series of subsidiaries and trusts.The Los Angeles Times estimates that IRGC ties to over one hundred companies that control more than $12 billion in business and construction.IRGC has been awarded billions of dollars in contracts in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, as well as major infrastructure projects.
Controversy
Corruption
The Pasdaran have been accused of corruption, including the importation of illegal alcoholic beverages into the Islamic Republic. In 2005, the IRGC was discovered to be running an illegal airport near Karaj City, close to Tehran where they imported and exported goods with no government oversight. In 2004, the Pasdaran stormed the new Tehran airport just after it had been officially opened and shut it down, ostensively for security reasons. According to their critics, however, it was shut because the company hired to operate the airport was a Turkish "competitor of a Pasdaran owned business". It was later reopened under Pasdaran management.
Involvement with Hezbollah
The AGIR's logo was inspiration for the logo of Hezbollah. The IRG provided military training to Hezbollah fighters in the Bekaa valley during the early eighties.
Other Lebanese parties have expressed concern about this relationship but remained neutral as they saw the AGIR's presence in Lebanon as resistance against Israeli presence. This came despite the ongoing fight between the Lebanese Amal militias and the PLO and its Sunni allies.
According to Jane's Information Group: "Any Hezbollah member receiving military training is likely to do so at the hands of IRGC [the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps], either in southern Lebanon or in camps in Iran. The increasingly sophisticated methods used by IRGC members indicates that they are trained using Israeli and US military manuals; the emphasis of this training is on the tactics of attrition, mobility, intelligence gathering and night-time manoeuvres."
Involvement with Hamas
According to the New York Times, Hamas fighters are being trained in urban assault tactics by the IRG.
Alleged involvement in the Iraq War
The United States Department of Defense has repeatedly asserted IRG involvement in the Iraq War against Iranian denials, though the U.S. has stopped short of saying the central government of Iran is responsible for the actions. In May 2008, Iraq said it had no evidence that Iran was supporting militants on Iraqi soil. According to a database compiled by the Multi-National Task Force's Iraq Task Force Troy, Iranian-made weapons accounted for only a negligible percentage of weapon caches found in Iraq. The U.S. charges come as Iran and Turkey have complained that U.S.-supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti-government militants on their soil.
The Department has reported that it has intelligence reports of heavy Islamic Revolutionary Guard involvement in Iraq in which the force is supplying Iraqi insurgents. It is further claimed that US soldiers have been killed by Iranian-made or designed explosive devices. This claim is disputed by Iran, saying that the bulk of American military deaths in Iraq are due to a Sunni insurgency and not a Shiite one. Two different studies have maintained that approximately half of all foreign insurgents entering Iraq come from Saudi Arabia. Iran further disputes that former Iraqi army personnel, whom, prior to the 2003 invasion, the US and UK claimed were capable of deploying advanced missile systems capable of launching WMDs within 45 minutes, would be incapable of designing and producing improvised explosive devices.
The U.S. charges of Iranian support come as Iran and Turkey have complained that U.S.-supplied guns are flowing from Iraq to anti-government militants on their soil. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the US Congress, said in a report that the Pentagon cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces. Security analysts with the Centre for Defence Information, along with one senior Pentagon official, suggested that some of the weapons have probably made their way in to the hands of Iraqi insurgents. Italian arms investigators also recently stopped Iraqi government officials from illegally shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic weapons into Iraq. In November 2008, the U.S. State Department preparied to slap a multimillion-dollar fine on Blackwater for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits. Some of the weapons were believed to have ended up on the country’s black market.
In January 2007 the US army detained five Iranians in northern Iraq, claiming they were Ghods operatives of the AGIR, providing military assistance to Shiite militias. The Iranian and Iraqi governments maintain that they were diplomats working for the Iranian consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan. The IRGC cadres were released as a negotiated deal for British sailors under the auspices of General Suleimani.
Labeling by the United States as a "Terrorist Organization"
On October 25, 2007, the United States labeled the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) as "terrorist organizations" with the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment.
When Voice of America, the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government, asked if the IRGC is supplying weapons to the Taliban, the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, laughed and said the US doesn't want Iran to be friends with Afghanistan. "What is the reason they are saying such things?" asked Ahmadinejad.
In response to the designation, the Iranian Parliament responded by approving a nonbinding resolution labeling the CIA and the U.S. Army "terrorist organizations". The resolution cited U.S. involvement in dropping nuclear bombs in Japan in World War II, using depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans, bombing and killing Iraqi civilians, and torturing terror suspects in prisons among others.
Financial sanctions
UN Security Council in several sanctions resolution has voted in favour of freezing the assets top Revolutionary Guard commanders.
Further reading
- (discusses U.S. military clashes with Iranian Revolutionary Guard during the Iran–Iraq War)
See also
External links
- , from the Middle East Quarterly
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- , a New York Times article about the role of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran's power structure
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- Washington Post April 17 2008
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