What is Quds Force, Iran’s feared elite group, and how does it operate?

The Come on Qud it is a powerful paramilitary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran (IRGC), the largest military organization in the Islamic Republic of Iran and considered a terrorist group by the United States.

These forces emerged as a de facto branch of foreign affairs during the expansion of the IRGC. Its name means Jerusalem in Farsi and Arabic.a city that its fighters have promised to “liberate”.

This organization operates in secret and sometimes openly in various parts of the world. He is linked to the Hezbollah group in Lebanon and to the Shiite militias in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Quds Force it is an important tool of Iranian foreign policy. Many describe it as a combination of special operations forces and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The Quds Force has been linked to various deadly attacks like the attack on the barracks in Beirut in 1983, in which 241 US marines, 58 French soldiers and 6 Lebanese civilians were killed.

on all fronts

Both the United States and the European Union (EU) have accused her of distributing weapons in Syria to help the Bashar al-Assad regime crack down on rebels in the Arab country. Washington he also blames them for arming and training the Taliban in the Middle East.

But this organization prefers to support and advise rather than participate directly in military incursions: this allows Iran deny any participationsparing him a direct conflict with the United States.

Due to the way it operates, it is impossible to get exact numbers on the size of its troops. However, there are estimates that from 5,000 members to more than 10,000. They are recruited based on their skills and their degree of loyalty to the Islamic Republic.

But since the Quds Force’s primary function is to help establish allied militias and fighting forces in other countries, the number of recruits does not reflect its capabilities for influence and action.

Since 1979, their goal was to fight the enemies of Iran and extend the country’s influence in the region.

And to try to counter its growing power of action, the Trump administration has designated this paramilitary arm as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Trump called the Quds Force as “main mechanism for Iran to cultivate and sustain” terrorist groups in the Middle East.

The Persian government, for its part, has repeatedly denied supporting criminal organizations and accuses the United States of being responsible for the turmoil that is currently shaking the Middle East.

Soleimani, the key man

January 3, 2020, Major General Qasem Soleimani, the powerful and elusive 62-year-old spy foreman driving the Iranian security car, he was murdered near Baghdad airport by a US drone attack.

Just as his achievements shaped the creation of a Shia axis of influence across the Middle East, with Iran at the center, his death was key to a new chapter of geopolitical tensions in the region.

Soleimani was at the forefront of Iran’s revolutionary generation, joining the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly after his twentieth birthday, following the 1979 uprising that sanctioned the country’s Shiite theocracy.

It grew rapidly during the brutal Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. And since 1998 he has led the influential Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard.

In Iran, many considered him a great hero, especially within security circles. Anecdotes about his rise and his reserved charisma combined to create the image of a warrior philosopher who became the pillar of a country’s defense against various enemies.

The general was close to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “His departure with God does not put an end to his journey and his mission”said the Ayatollah.

The early years of Soleimani’s rule in the late 1990s were devoted to leading the efforts of Hezbollah’s paramilitary group against the Israeli military occupation of southern Lebanon.

Soleimani, together with Hezbollah military commander Imad Mugniyah, launched a sophisticated guerrilla campaign, combining ambushes, roadside bombings, kamikaze, targeted killings of senior officials and attacks on Israeli defense posts.