The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is the primary department of the Iranian Armed Forces.
The facility was established shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In this revolution, a motion led by Muslim college students led to the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty with US help.
The IRGC was launched to offer further safety to the brand new regime and act as a counterweight to the common military.
It is a response to Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Khamenei.
The IRGC has an estimated 125,000 troops within the military, navy, and air forces, though some analysts consider this quantity is far larger.
It additionally instructions the Basij non secular militia, a volunteer militia loyal to the regime and infrequently used to suppress anti-government protests.
Analysts say the variety of Basij volunteers may quantity within the hundreds of thousands.
The Quds Force is the overseas espionage and paramilitary arm of the Revolutionary Guards and has important affect over allied militias all through the Middle East.
Its high commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in 2020.
The Revolutionary Guards, labeled as a terrorist group by the United States, desires to form the Middle East state of affairs in Iran’s favor.
In 1982, he established the Lebanese Hezbollah to export Iran’s Islamic revolution and battle the Israeli military that invaded Lebanon that very same 12 months.
What are the navy capabilities of the Revolutionary Guards?
The Revolutionary Guards have land, air and naval capabilities and oversee Iran’s ballistic missile program, thought of by specialists to be the most important within the Middle East.
The missiles had been used to assault insurgents in Syria and northern Iraq.
The United States, European nations and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for a 2019 missile and drone assault that crippled the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia.
Iran denied involvement within the assault.
The IRGC has its personal intelligence division and a variety of typical fight gear, which it has demonstrated in its involvement within the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
Experts consider that its cruise and ballistic missile fleet has the aptitude and vary to strike any goal within the area.
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Iran has the most important variety of ballistic missiles within the area.