Qods Force

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

IRGC Military Branches
IRGC Air Force Army Navy Qods Force Basij
Personnel
Senior officers IRGC Ranks Insignia

Qods (Jerusalem) Force is an elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that carries out operations outside of Iran.^[1] Its main activity is conducting para-military training for Islamic revolutionary groups both in Iran and in the Sudan, as well providing organizational, financial, and military support, and pre-attack planning.^[2] The group maintains and builds contacts with underground Islamic militant organizations throughout the Arab World.^[1] It also collects strategic and military intelligence around the world, possibly having operatives in the United States.^[2] Qods Force was founded in 1990 and reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.^[3] Its current commander is Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani.

1 Organization
2 Activities
3 Notes
4 References

[edit] Organization

According to former US army intelligence officer David Dionisi, Qods force is organized into eight different directorates based on geographic location:^[2]

In addition, Dionisi says that the Iranian headquarters of Qods Force was moved in 2004 from central Iran to the Iran-Iraq border in order to better supervise their Iraqi activities.^[2]

[edit] Activities

According to the American neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard, Qods Force has maintained some kind of relationship with the leadership of al-Qaeda since at least the mid-1990s. After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001, al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is reported to have contacted Iranian authorities and secured the safe passage and harbor for numerous al-Qaeda members, perhaps including the late head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi.^[4] Although Iran is hostile to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, some Washington observers speculated that it was IRC forces who were pursuing the idea of joint action.^[5] Iran has since acknowledged that a number of al-Qaeda leaders and members are in their custody, possibly including the son of Osama bin Laden, Saad bin Laden.^[6] Iran had supported the Northern Alliance forces against the Taliban before the US invasion of Afghanistan, and almost began a war in 1999 when Taliban forces killed several Iranian officials.^[7]

Other reports have said that Qods Force has taken an active role in Iraq since September 2002, when they allegedly began building pro-Iranian militant groups in anticipation of the US led invasion of Iraq in early 2003. Since then they have been accused of providing training and financial support to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and open borders to several members of the group Ansar al-Islam.^[4] The Italian intelligence service SIMSI said that Sadr and other militant groups were receiving US$70 million per month.^[8] The militant Iranian dissident group the People's Mujahedin of Iran has reportedly provided the US army with information as to the names of Qods Force commanders operating in Iraq and the networks they are facilitating to distribute arms from Iran.^[9] In November 2006, with secretarian violence in Iraq increasing, US Gen. John Abizaid accused Qods Force of supporting "Shia death squads" even while the government of Iran pledges support in stabilization.^[10]

After the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Qods Force has been cited as possibly providing the millions of US dollars being handed out by the group Hezbollah for reconstruction.^[11]

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b Qods (Jerusalem) Force, Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Dionisis, 8
^ Dionisi, 7
^ ^a ^b Darling, Dan. "General Panic", The Weekly Standard, October 5, 2005. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
^ Borger, Julian. "Al-Qaida helped to flee, US says", January 11, 2002. Retrieved October 15, 2006.
^ Zagorin, Adam and Klein, Joe. "9/11 Commission Finds Ties Between al-Qaeda and Iran", Time Magazine, July 16, 2004. Retrieved October 15, 2006.
^ Karon, Tony. "TIME.com Primer: The Taliban and Afghanistan", Time Magazine, September 18, 2001. Retrieved October 16, 2006.
^ Rubin, Michael. "The Puppetmasters", April 12, 2004. Retrieved October 1, 2006.
^ Pound, Edward T. "Special Report: The Iran Connection", U.S. News & World Report, November 22, 2004. Retrieved November 1, 2006.
^ "Gen. Abizaid On Stabilizing Iraq", 60 Minutes, November 26, 2006. Retrieved November 27, 2006.
^ Foroohar, Kambiz. "Hezbollah, With $100 Bills, Struggles to Repair Lebanon Damage", September 28, 2006. Retrieved October 1, 2006.