Quds Force
The Quds Force (Persian: نیروی قدس, romanized: niru-ye qods, lit. 'Jerusalem Force') is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)[8] specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States.[9] Responsible for extraterritorial operations,[10] the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthi movement, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.[10] According to Michael Wigginton et al., the Al-Quds Force is "a classic example of state-sponsored terrorism."[11]
Quds Force
1988 as an independent force
5,000[1]
Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh[7]
The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei.[12][13] After Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike, his deputy, Esmail Ghaani, replaced him.[14] The U.S. Secretary of State designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2019 based on the IRGC's "continued support to and engagement in terrorist activity around the world." This was the first time that the U.S. ever designated another government's department as a FTO.[15]
History and mission
The predecessor of the Quds Force, known as 'Department 900', was created during the Iran–Iraq War as a special intelligence unit, while the IRGC was allegedly active abroad in Afghanistan before the war.[18] The department was later merged into 'Special External Operations Department'.[18] After the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988, the IRGC was reorganized and the Quds Force was established as an independent service branch.[18] It has the mission of liberating "Muslim land", especially al-Quds, from which it takes its name—"Jerusalem Force" in English.[19]
Both during and after the war, it provided support to the Kurds fighting Saddam Hussein. In 1982, a Quds unit was deployed to Lebanon, where it assisted in the genesis of Hezbollah.[20] The Force also expanded its operations into neighboring Afghanistan, including assistance for Abdul Ali Mazari's Shi'a Hezbe Wahdat in the 1980s against the government of Mohammad Najibullah. It then began funding and supporting Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance against the Taliban.[21] However, in recent years, the Quds Force is alleged to have been helping and guiding the Taliban insurgents against the NATO-backed Karzai administration.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] There were also reports of the unit lending support to Bosnian Muslims fighting the Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnian War.[29][30][31]
According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad helped fund the Quds Force while he was stationed at the Ramazan garrison near Iraq, during the late 1980s.[32]
In January 2010, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the mission of the Quds Force was expanded and the Force along with Hezbollah started a new campaign of attacks targeting not only the US and Israel but also other Western bodies.[33]
In January 2020, Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US airstrike on his convoy outside Baghdad International Airport.[34]
The Quds force is run from Tehran, and has ties with armed groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.[35]