By Reza Shafa
IRGC’s operations in other regions
1. From 1981 until 1986, a special unit of the force was assigned to plan the assassination of leader of Iranian Resistance, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, in suburban Paris where he resided for five years. Dozens of various plans were tried by the IRGC’s Special Operations Units; however, the Iranian Resistance wisely subdued all of them.
2. Although the IRGC was heavily involved in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, it had never abandoned the idea of pushing ahead with terrorist tactics as a complement of its classical war methods. To that end, the organization created three separate garrisons. They are as follows:
– Ramadan Garrison for guerrilla campaign in neighboring Iraq;
– Nasr Garrison for guerrilla warfare in Iran’s eastern neighbors: Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan;
– Balal Garrison for carrying terrorist operations in the rest of the world.
3. In January and February of 1987, a series of bombings broke out in Paris. A terrorist operation failed and two individuals involved were killed and arrested. The arrested terrorist, Lotfi Bin Khala, revealed that then Minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Mohammad Mohammadi Raishahri, currently running the Organization of Haj and Oqaf, and Mohsen Rafiqdoost, then Minister of the IRGC had masterminded the explosions to give the mullahs’ upper hand in their ongoing negotiations with the French over their hostages in Lebanon.
4. In 1987, two Iranian Air Force pilots, colonel Heidari and Major Hassan Mansour were slain by a hit squad of the IRGC under the command of current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The two officers had just escaped Iran.
5. Following the end of Iran-Iraq war in 1988, and Khomeini’s death in the spring of 1989, IRGC’s terrorist operations intensified.
In 1991, the Qods Force of the IRGC was setup on the order of newly seeded mullahs’ supreme leader Ali Khamenei. He had filled in the power vacuum which Khomeini left behind with his death. The new force which was supposed to be the most potent force within the IRGC specialized in extraterritorial operations did what it indented to do. And it certainly has lived up to its reputation. The first Qods Force commander was Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi; he was an IRGC veteran officer with special skills in commanding terrorist operations such as kidnapping of foreign nationals in places like Lebanon, in the 80s. Major General Mohsen Rezaii in an interview with the official daily Kayhan on October 21, 1991 could not hid his jubilation over the establishment of the Qods Force and said, "There will come a day that the flames of hatred and wrath of [Muslims] will reach the heart of Washington D.C. Something the U.S. would be responsible for… There will come a day which the Jews, just like Salman Rushdie, would not be able to find a place to live."
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.