Khamenei behind mullahs’ onslaught in Iraq
By: Reza Shafa
With war breaking out in the winter of 2002 in Iraq, the mullahs in Tehran who had been planning for such opportunities to fulfill their dreams in the neighboring country wasted no time by putting the Qods Force on red alert.
In turn, the force in a series of meeting at its headquarters in Tehran, called in its local agents from Iraq to be briefed of the upcoming postwar conditions. Shortly before the fall of Iraq’s former government in April 2003, a few units of the Qods Force were already in place in various parts of the country ready for operation such as:
– Unit 60044 in the northern cities of Kirkuk, Soleimanieh, and Mousel under the command of Mehdi Albayati;
– Unit 60310 in the eastern province of Diyala under the command of Ali Hamoud Alsadi a.k.a. Abuzar Khalisi. He was assassinated in southern city of Mahmoudeh in September 2003;
– Unit 60450 in the city of Samaveh in the southwestern Iraqi province of Najaf (al-Mothanna) under the command of an IRGC veteran officer named Abu-Ahmad Roumesi formerly headed the IRGC training garrisons in the south-central city of Varamin and Imam Ali Garrison in the western city of Kermanshah in Iran;
– Unit 60750 in the southern oil rich city of Basrah; the port city from start has had a strategic importance for the mullahs. The IRGC appointed one of its most ruthless men for the job, Brig. Gen. Abu-Ahmad Rashed, former head of the IRGC’s Heidar-e-karar Garrison in the southern city of Dezful in Iran. He is one of supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s closest confidants;
– Unit 60840 in the southwestern city of Najaf under Brig. Gen. Haj Abu-Ali formerly Badr Brigade’s head of logistics in Tang-e-Kenasht Valley outside the western city of Kermanshah in Iran;
– Unit 61000 in southern city of Nassereh under the command of Brig. Gen. Abu-Anvar Hosseini formerly Badr Brigade’s top intelligence officer in southern Iraq;
To be continued
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Reza Shafa is an expert on the Iranian regime’s intelligence networks, both in Iran and abroad. He has done extensive research on VAVAK (MOIS), IRGC’s Intelligence Office, and Quds Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.
