By: Reza Shafa
IRGC’s operations in other regions
6. Only forty days after Khomeini’s death on July 13 1989, Abdul-Rahman Qassemlou, the secretary general of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, was assassinated by a hit squad dispatched from Tehran commanded by Brig. Gen. Mohammad Jafari Sahrarodi, head of Ramadan Garrison of the IRGC and current deputy Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) in Vienna. It is worthy of note that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the commander of the backup team in the operation.
7. A carefully planed assassination was underway to remove Professor Kazem Rajavi, National Council of Resistance’s representative, in Switzerland. The masterminds were Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahedi commander of the Qods Force and Ali Fallahian then minister of intelligence and security. In April 1990, shortly after the plan was approved by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, it was passed on to a professional hit squad belonging to the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to execute.
8. On March 13, 1990, a new scheme was on the table to assassinate the NCIR’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin and Mr. Hossein Abadeni, in Istanbul. An IRGC unit called 5000 was assigned to carry on the operation. The unit used its local Turkish recruits and they were not successful in assassinating Mr. Mohaddessin. However, Mr. Abadeni was seriously wounded as a result.
9. In a joint action, unit 5000 and Qods Force took part in abduction and gruesome mutilation of a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Turkey on June 4, 1992.
10. On June 5, 1992, a series of car bombs exploded in the streets of Istanbul aimed at killing members of the Iranian opposition. However, the attacks failed and had no serious human casualties.
11. Using foreign recruits, the IRGC assassinated nationals of other countries primarily in Turkey. Among them were journalists, bankers, local politicians.
12. On June 25, 1996, The Khobar Towers bombing occurred on the order of Ali Khamenei. It was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company (Saudi Aramco) headquarters of Dhahran. In 1996 it was being used to house foreign military personnel, including Americans. In the blast 19 U.S. servicemen were killed and 109 others were injured. Also, 147 Saudis, 18 Bangladesh nationals were wounded. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Sharifi, commander of Unit 6000 of the IRGC, directed the operation. On July 31, 1996, Khamenei praised the blast and said, "All those countries which still support terrorism would be punished; specially the U.S. which backs the Zionist regime in Palestine."
The book on the IRGC and Qods Forces’ terrorist activities has just been opened. The dreaded forces have been kept in the dark for almost three decades by the mullahs’ regime to cover their ominous intentions for the world.
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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.