By Reza Shafa
On September 16, 2008, the US Treasury Department blacklisted five individuals and two entities of the Iranian regime. One of the individuals, Abdul-Reza Shahlai, is a deputy commander of the elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Qods Force.
Stuart Levey, Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said, “Their lethal and destabilizing tactics, especially by Iran's Qods Force, are intended to undermine Iraq as it strives for peace and prosperity.”
According to press reports, Shahlai is believed to be providing material and logistical support to Shiite extremist groups such as the Special Forces of the Mahdi Army militia. Shahlai is also accused of planning the 2007 attack by the special forces of the Mahdi Army against US forces in Karbala, Iraq, which killed five American soldiers and injured three more.
The Treasury Department’s press release stated, “Further, the Qods Force provides lethal support in the form of weapons, training, funding, and guidance to select groups of Iraqi Shia militants who target and kill Coalition and Iraqi forces and Iraqi civilians. The IRGC–Qods Force was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the Treasury Department on October 25, 2007.” The Qods Force’s commander is Ghasem Soleimani.
Some information on Shahlai, Qods Force Deputy Commander:
• Shahlai is a senior Qods Force commander, who for more than two decades has directed the Iranian regime’s meddling activities in Iraq from the Ramadan Garrison in western Iran.
• The Qods Force Commander, Ghasem Soleimani, along with Ahmad Forouzandeh, Shahlai, and Taghva, lead the Iranian regime’s meddling activities in Iraq. Forouzandeh was blacklisted by the US Treasury Department on January 9, 2008.
• Ghasem Soleimani appointed three commanders along the Iran-Iraq border in line with the regime’s efforts to expand its meddling in Iraq. Ahmad Forouzandeh commands the southern axis, Taghva the center axis, and Shahlai commands the western and northern axes.
• Shahlai has been responsible for sending Iraqi militias to Iran for training and also for directing the training program. One of the training camps used by Shahlai is the Hezbollah base in Jalilabad, Varamin, south of Tehran. This base was previously used as a training ground for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq’s Badr Force. After sending the Badr Force to Iraq in 2003, the base was provided to the Qods Force under the command of Shafiee who worked at the Qods Force’s training unit. The base is now used to train militia members sent from Iraq.
• Shahlai, along with Jafari Sahraroudi (commander of the team that on July 13, 1989 assassinated the Executive Director of Kurdish Democratic Party Dr. Abdolrahman Ghasemloo and two of his friends Abdollah Ghaderi-Azar and Fazel Rasul in Vienna.
• In 2004, Shahlai demanded from the Islamic Gathering of Iraq, whose commander was Abu Mahdi Mohandes (former commander of the Badr Brigade), to stage a number of protests in various Iraqi cities against the main Iranian opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
• At a news conference in New York on March 22, 2007, Alireza Jafarzadeh exposed “training camps for the regime’s terrorist activities established in Iran for the purpose of exporting crimes and terrorism to Iraq. New documents demonstrating the extent of the mullah regime’s meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs, as well as the addresses of training camps and the kinds of terrorist Ramadan Garrison.”
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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 Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) also known as VEVAK, Intelligence Office of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Qods Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.
