What do Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen have in common? While these groups differ strongly in terms of ideologies and modi operandi, sometimes even raising their weapons against each other, they have one common denominator: support from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Central to Tehran’s extensive terror network is the Quds Force, the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) division responsible for covert operations outside Iran. Its stated goal is ending pro-Western presence and influence in the Middle East and to “liberate” Al-Quds, Arabic for Jerusalem.
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The secretive Quds Force’s exact size is unknown, but intelligence agencies estimate it has anywhere between 5.000 and 20.000 members. However, through its countless proxies, which act as a force multiplier, the Quds Force spreads havoc across the entire region.
Hence, the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have officially designated the Quds Force as a foreign terrorist group and sanctioned its commanders, a rare occurrence for an organization that is part of a foreign army.
The Quds Force: Involved in Every Major Conflict
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, founded the IRGC some three months after the fall of the Shah’s monarchy. According to its mission statement, the IRGC was established to protect the revolution against internal and external threats. To this end, the IRGC also created an intelligence unit that would carry out clandestine operations abroad. After several reorganizations, the mullahs established the Quds Force as an independent branch of the IRGC.
The unit was involved in aiding proxies since day one. One of its first known operations took place in Afghanistan, where Iranian operatives supported Shia Hazara militants fighting against the pro-Soviet government. In the 1980s, the Quds Force (then known as Department 900) focused on supporting Iraqi Shia militias, Hazara militant groups, and establishing Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
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In the first decade after the Quds Force’s founding, Ahmad Vahidi commanded the unit. Vahidi would later go on to become Iran’s defense minister. In 1998, Qasem Soleimani took over control. At that point, the Quds Force was assisting terrorist groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. He significantly increased their funding, arming, and training, giving the Quds Force a growing presence in the region.
Under the leadership of ‘Haj Qasem,’ Iranian mercenaries meddled in virtually every major conflict in the Middle East. Among others, the Quds Force ordered rocket attacks on Israeli civilians using Hamas and Islamic Jihad, terror proxies that receive millions from Tehran. In Syria, the Quds Force built a significant military presence to support the Assad regime and threaten Israel’s borders. According to Israeli estimates, Iran deployed 3.000 Quds Force fighters to Syria, while simultaneously paying Hezbollah and other Shiite militias for their malicious interference in the civil war.
In Iraq, the Quds Force coordinated attacks, including rocket strikes and roadside bombings that targeted US troops, with Shiite proxies like Kataeb Hezbollah. The Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are fighting a bloody civil war, also receive advice and vital material support from the Islamic Republic and Quds Force members on the ground.
On 3 January 2020, an American drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad airport, while the commander was on his way to meet Iraq’s prime minister. The Trump administration alleged that Soleimani was directly responsible for “multiple attacks against Americans in the region, including [Kataeb Hezbollah] attacks we’ve seen over the last several months.”
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After the assassination, Ayatollah Khameini appointed Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani as Soleimani’s successor. At the time of his promotion, analysts noted that little was known about Ghaani, who joined the IRGC in 1980 and fought in Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq. “American mischief will not deter the Quds force from carrying on its resistance path,” the commander vowed a year after Soleimani’s death.
Quds Force Terrorist Attacks on Western Targets
Most of the Quds Force’s activities take place on battlefields around the Middle East, however, the unit has been linked directly to terrorist attacks on Western targets across the globe. For example, many believe that then-Quds Force commander Soleimani was the mastermind behind the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires. The attack, executed by Hezbollah operatives, left 85 people dead and hundreds injured. According to recent reports in Argentinian media, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself ordered the bombing.
Additionally, Israel’s security services have linked the Quds Force to several attacks on embassies and diplomatic personnel worldwide in the recent past. In February 2012, Israel blamed the secretive unit for the bombing of its embassies in India and Georgia. That same month, Thailand’s police arrested an Iranian terror squad planning another attack on Israeli targets.
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Alleged Quds Force members were also arrested in connection with terror plots in Turkey in March 2012, and in Kenya in July of the same year. Many of the attempted attacks were orchestrated in cooperation with Hezbollah, Iran’s chief proxy. The slain Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani has also been linked to the deadly Hezbollah attack on an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria the same month as the Kenya arrests.
A year later, in 2013, a dual US-Iranian citizen was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. According to court documents, Manssor Arbabsiar admitted being recruited, funded, and directed by senior officials in Iran’s Quds Force. Arbabsiar’s handlers allegedly approved the plan to blow up a restaurant frequented by the Saudi ambassador, even if that would lead to the death of countless innocent bystanders. The FBI thwarted the murder plot.
In 2018, German authorities raided the homes and businesses of ten suspected members of the Quds Force. The Iranians are believed to have spied on Jewish and Israeli targets, possibly with the goal of planning future terror attacks.
Through the Quds Force, Iran’s global terrorism remains a very real threat, especially to Jews and Israelis abroad.
Featured Image: MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images
