On the night of January 3, 2020, massive explosions lit up the sky over Baghdad International Airport. The target: the black armored vehicle of Qassem Soleimani, then commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ elite terror unit – the Quds Force. The United States was behind the covert operation, and in that same attempt, “Haj Qassem,” one of the most influential terrorists, was eliminated.
Six years later, as part of the operation that the IDF and the American army have been conducting in recent weeks against Iran, one of the most significant targets on the crosshairs is the unit of the Ayatollah regime responsible for “exporting” the Revolutionary Guards beyond the country’s borders: establishing terror infrastructure and nests, training and maintaining Islamic terror militias, and carrying out numerous direct attacks – the Quds Force.
To best understand this terror organization, and how critical a deep blow to it is, one must be well acquainted with the five operational arms of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran – which effectively control the country.
Alongside the Quds Force, operate the Air Force, Navy, and Ground Force, which comprise the Guards’ army. In addition to them is the Basij, which is a sort of semi-military volunteer militia, directly subordinate to the Supreme Leader, and composed of Iranian citizens without significant military training.
After the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988, Tehran invested many of the resources previously allocated to the campaign against its neighbor into a relatively new effort it led: “exporting the revolution.”
The goal, in essence, was to expand the presence and “footprint” of the Ayatollah regime in the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula, Western countries, and the Middle East – with an emphasis on the State of Israel. This involved establishing three significant hostile borders around it, allowing freedom of action.
And so, in the late 1980s, the elite body was established and entrusted with this mission, and several others, which we will elaborate on later. The Quds Force (Jerusalem Force), whose name signifies its ultimate aspiration, is composed of the most idealistic and experienced fighters of the Revolutionary Guards, most of them from the regime’s most elite units, and they are its greatest supporters.
Within the country’s most powerful military-security body, the Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force is directly subordinate to the Supreme Leader. No one else has the authority to issue orders to the force – including the President. The exact number of its operatives is not known even to the Iranian parliament lawmakers, the Majlis, with estimates ranging between 15,000 and 50,000 fighters. This is the largest subversion organization in the Middle East. Why subversion? The reason lies in its operational strategy.
To avoid direct confrontation with the countries Iran attacks, it “hides” behind militant groups, militias, and guerrilla organizations referred to as “proxies,” including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen, and Palestinian terror organizations and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria. The Quds Force is essentially the entity that outlines, leads, and manages this entire operation.
Shortly after Ali Khamenei came to power in Iran, he spoke about the role of the Revolutionary Guards in his eyes: “They will establish Hezbollah cells all over the world as part of the global Islamic revolution.” In the same speech, he also addressed Iran’s loyalty to the aforementioned groups: “We will not send our army forces to other places and interfere in the internal affairs of others, but the Iranian revolution is not exempt from responsibility for armed Hezbollah cells around the world, and cannot remain indifferent to their fate.”
Indeed, the scope of Quds’ involvement in these terror groups is exceptionally broad, and it is almost completely present in them: funding, training, building missile systems and equipment, strengthening ties with non-state actors and various organizations, supplying weapons, and ideological indoctrination (imparting views and ideas) in camps in Iran and places like Sudan, Lebanon, and Iraq.
In addition, some of the units under Quds, which I will discuss soon, sometimes actively participate in combat alongside the proxies. There are cases where its fighters will carry out terror plots themselves. Such attacks are characterized by a more “restrained” tone than those of Hezbollah, which prefers large “showcase” attacks. These are more like a “precision strike” that will “deliver the goods.”
The basic training for the force’s fighters lasts between 3 and 9 months, including at three main facilities: Imam Ali base in Syria, which primarily handles the training of foreign terror operatives; a counter-terrorism warfare facility of the unit equivalent to the Shin Bet, at a base in Shiraz; and the “Operation Jerusalem” College in Qom, which cultivates the spiritual-ideological aspect among recruits.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also involved in recruiting, responsible for the logistics of these foreign recruits, and handling their travel to and from Iran, including issuing new passports or those that allow safer passage between countries without leaving traces in their original passports.
In most cases, after completing the course, recruits are sent for several months to countries like Afghanistan and Iraq to gain field experience.
The unit’s headquarters is composed of several staff units that the IDF attacked and destroyed parts of in the early days of “Lion’s Roar”: Intelligence Directorate, Finance, Training, etc., as well as operational corps, which are divided into regional departments, with each responsible for a different geographical sector.
The responsibility of the corps is reflected in the ongoing management of the force, its development, and its communication with authorities. This ranges from the Supreme Leader and various political figures in the Iranian government, through coordination with military and security bodies, to the Revolutionary Guards headquarters, the Ministry of Defense, Intelligence, etc.
Among them, one can mention the “Ramadan Corps,” responsible for Iraq, or the “Rasul Allah Corps,” which handles the Arabian Peninsula and is responsible for the Houthis, and the “Ansar Corps,” which operates in Afghanistan. However, the main focus of the Quds Force is on the “Lebanon Corps,” whose commander, Daoud Ali Zadeh, was eliminated by the IDF in Tehran during the first week of the operation, and his deputy in Beirut. And the “Palestine Corps,” against which it also achieved success, as alongside Ali Zadeh, the Air Force attacked 5 of its senior commanders:
Majid Hosseini, responsible for transferring funds to the regime’s proxies in Lebanon for financing Hezbollah, the Lebanon Corps, Hamas, and other terror organizations.
Ali Reza Bi-Azer, commander of the Intelligence Branch of the Lebanon Corps and a significant figure in intelligence research.
Ahmad Rasouli, head of intelligence in the Palestine Corps. He was responsible for intelligence gathering for militias in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Hossein Ahmadloo, an intelligence operative involved in gathering intelligence on the State of Israel.
Abu Muhammad Ali, Hezbollah’s representative in the Palestine Corps, was responsible for the organization’s ongoing liaison with the Palestine Corps.
However, not all units are tied to geographical locations. Some specialize in specific capabilities. For example, Unit 400, which carries out assassinations, targeted killings, kidnappings, and significant attacks outside Iran. But that’s not all; its fighters are responsible for executing terror plots for revenge and deterrence, and establishing dormant terror infrastructures around the world.
Along with Unit 840, which organizes, trains, and directs operational forces specifically for the mentioned operation, and establishes infrastructure on-site to provide weapons, equipment, and funding. In some cases, its fighters will also be the ones to carry out the operation, as happened in 2012 in Bangkok, in the assassination attempt against Israeli diplomats in Thailand, or attacks such as the bombing of a consulate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992.
Unit 840 is essentially responsible for the concentration, recruitment, and identification of foreign operatives living in the target areas, so that they will be the ones to carry out special missions, and it will also be responsible for them from the Iranian side – from start to finish.
And there is Unit 190, which deals with all matters of weapons and military equipment. From adapting them for various militias and proxies, to smuggling and transporting them to the locations where activities take place. Its sister unit, Unit 700, also handles the smuggling of equipment, providing logistical support, infrastructure, and administrative support. However, as mentioned, this is more about classic logistics and less about “par excellence” combat equipment.
Both suffered a severe blow when the IDF destroyed the transport aircraft fleet used by the Quds Force – 16 in number, as they attempted to “flee” from the airport in Iran.
Unit 340 is responsible for research and development, dealing with UAVs, missiles, munitions, and developing technologies and solutions for needs arising from the field. It collaborates with universities and defense industries. It too was significantly impacted by strikes against missile industries and the army in Iran.