SSF commander of Greater Tehran dismissed on Khamenei’s order due to the regime’s defeat in implementation of suppressive measures
NCRI – The Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has dismissed Brig. Gen. Azizollah Rajabzadeh, the Commander of the Greater Tehran’s State Security Forces (SSF), replacing him with Brig. Gen. Hossein Sajedinia.
The dismissal came after an assessment by the leaders of the regime pertaining to the courageous uprising of the Iranian people and youths on Ashura day (December 27). In the assessment, the regime’s leaders expressed their trepidation over the fact that on Ashura day, the heroic people and youths managed to liberate 5 areas in the Greater Tehran while temporarily forcing the regime’s suppressive elements to retreat. They emphasized that if the 5 areas had joined together, Tehran would have fallen.
The assessment, which is the product of numerous meetings at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the SSF, attributes one of the reasons for the escalation of protests on Ashura to the SSF’s weak performance.
Among other things, the assessment cites Rajabzadeh’s “incompetence” and describes the episode of him being beaten up by a female protestor as a “disgrace” and “demoralizing” factor for the regime’s suppressive forces. The regime’s leaders also noted the “state of helplessness” of Ahmad-Reza Radan, the SSF’s Deputy Commander, and the broadcasting of his “injured” and frightened face on state-run TV on Ashura day as a factor in prompting despair and fear among suppressive agents.
The meetings insisted on the need to revamp the SSF, especially its commanders, but it was decided that due to the destructive impact of such changes on the regime’s forces and in turn their positive effects on the morale of protestors, such efforts would be postponed until after February 11. The changes will be continued on Khamenei’s orders and the more criminal elements will be promoted.
Sajedinia, the new commander of the SSF in Tehran, was in the past among the regime’s commanders responsible for dispatching forces to the fronts during the eight year war with Iraq. He continually climbed the ladder thanks to his unbridled crimes in sending young people to the fronts to their deaths. Thereafter he worked in the IRGC’s ground forces headquarters, the paramilitary Bassij headquarters, command of Bassij operations, SSF headquarters and command of SSF operations tasked with implementing the crimes of the religious dictatorship. One of the reasons for his appointment has been his experience in Bassij coupled with his insistence on using the Bassij Force jointly with the SSF to suppress protests. Over the past 8 months, he has played an active role in the suppression of people’s uprisings.
Such changes display the clerical regime’s despair in confronting the national uprising of the Iranian people and will neither alleviate the regime’s troubles nor forestall its inevitable downfall.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 22, 2010
