The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), also known as the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, is a branch of the Iranian armed forces that has the goal of enforcing Islamic sharia law in the country and backing up the regime. It has become a multibillion dollar business empire in recent years, becoming the third-richest group in Iran. The IRGC has seen combat both as a paramilitary organization in the Iran-Iraq War and as an elite unit of Iranian advisers and soldiers in the Lebanese Civil War, Bosnian War, Iraq War, and Syrian Civil War, often being sent to conduct clandestine operations outside of Iran's borders to assist Shia and anti-West interests.
History[]
IRGC volunteers during the Iran-Iraq War, spotting their trademark blue headbands
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps was founded in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini after the Iranian Revolution with the purpose of enforcing the new government's Islamist rule over the country and punishing dissidents and nonconformists.
That year, they crushed a rebellion in Kurdistan and fought in the Iran-Iraq War as an elite unit of the Iranian Army, proving their loyalty to the regime. According to the constitution of Iran, the IRGC's goal was to maintain Iran's Islamic system. However, its power surpassed even that of the Shi'a legal system, and they became a multibillion dollar business empire and the third-richest organization in Iran. In 1988, they claimed responsibility for the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, and they are ironically held responsible for most of the imports of illegal alcohol into the country; drinking is illegal in Iran, and the IRGC punishes people who go against the laws of the regime.
The IRGC is heavily-controversial not only due to its suspected terrorism and its perceived corruption, but also due to their operations outside of their borders; they fought in the Lebanese Civil War and the Bosnian War to back Muslim forces against non-Muslims, and they trained the Bosnian Mujahideen in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hezbollah and the Amal Movement in Lebanon. After 2011, Iran gave its backing to the Syrian Arab Republic and sent IRGC advisers and around 10,000 troops to assist President Bashar al-Assad's government during the Syrian Civil War. They played more than just an advisory role, with Iranian soldiers and generals dying on the front lines in battle with the Islamic State and the Syrian Opposition. The IRGC also cracked down on protests in Iran using very violent methods, and the IRGC was notorious for both its internal and external brutality during the war.
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