Resumption of overseas missions of the Quds Force's "Unit 400" in Europe and the United States

On Thursday, November 26, IRGC Major General Salar Abnoush, deputy coordinator of the IRGC's Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, said in a speech at the Nahavand Mosque in Hamadan Province that protecting the authority of the jurist has no borders for the IRGC, saying: "The whole world should know for sure that the IRGC will soon be formed in America and Europe."

In a speech that also had foreign repercussions, he stated that the devotees of the province are always under command, and said that the Islamic Revolution of Iran is not like the revolutions of Algeria and France, and that the Revolutionary Guard Corps is a unique institution in the world and is like the Sharta al-Khamis group during the reign of Imam Ali, who were at the forefront in assisting him.

Although the IRGC's overseas activities are not a new issue, where does this ideology originate in the IRGC and based on what need it intends to start a new chapter of its overseas operations are questions that must be answered by going back to the past.

"Shurtahu al-Khamis" were a group of armed and devoted companions of the first Shiite Imam who assisted him in government affairs. Apart from their constant presence in wars, their main duty during non-war periods was to enforce the divine limits, maintain the security of the city of Kufa and the areas under their control, and protect the life of the first Shiite Imam. They also had another important mission, which was to identify and gather fighting forces within the provinces that had pledged allegiance or outside them. In fact, one of the missions of this group was an overseas mission (read more).

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the government has always planned to collect intelligence, identify the activities of opponents of the regime, and assassinate them. With the end of the Iran-Iraq War, the majority of the IRGC’s intelligence-operations forces were absorbed into the IRGC’s intelligence organization. In the following years, with the creation of the Quds Force as an overseas arm, most of these missions were assigned to this complex.

The Committee or "Unit 400" is the name of a special mission organization within the Quds Force. The unit is comprised of experienced and talented forces with prior intelligence and operational experience, as well as younger forces who are trained by them.

The first time the name Unit 400 was officially mentioned was in 2011, when Iranian agents were said to have been involved in the assassination of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi, Pakistan. Less than a year later, Kenyan police arrested two Iranians on charges of planning operations against Saudi Arabia, Britain, the United States, and Israel. Investigations revealed that they were affiliated with Unit 400 of the Quds Force.

Some of these forces do not directly participate in assassination or sabotage operations, but rather identify talented and capable individuals in the target country and, by luring or paying money, attract their attention to carry out the mission.

The most prominent figure in Unit 400 is General Hamed Abdullahi, the head of this unit. Before his appointment, he was the commander of the Zahedan Corps and became the deputy commander of the division when Qassem Soleimani was the commander of the 41st Division of the Kerman Corps. In 1997, when Soleimani was assigned command of the Quds Force by order of Ali Khamenei, Abdullahi was appointed head of the Quds Force Intelligence Department shortly after.

According to Abdullahi's contemporaries who left the IRGC, in order to advance in the IRGC's organizational chart, he successfully carried out several sabotage operations in addition to the severe suppression of armed opposition groups in Sistan and Baluchestan province (read more).

During his time as head of the Quds Force Intelligence, an "archive room" was organized to store files of Iranians active abroad. It is worth noting that Abdollahi is on the US sanctions list.

Next to him was Majid Alavi, another member of the Quds Force. In 2009, when the government's situation became critical during the protests following the presidential election, he was appointed as deputy minister of intelligence by order of Ahmadinejad, so that his experience and that of the team under his command could be used in suppressing the protesters.

This organization has offices in several parts of Tehran, but its main headquarters is located in the "Iranzamin" building on Pasdaran Street in Tehran, and a number of its administrative and operational offices are also located in the "Shahid Iraqi" complex in the area of ​​Shahid Sayyad and Pasdaran highways. The core of the Quds Corps is made up of senior members of the 41st Division of Kerman who served with Soleimani, and their main experience after the war, in addition to fighting armed groups in eastern Iran, is fighting drug trafficking and its organizational transit.

One of the main characteristics of this unit is the facilities and privileges that are provided to its members. These privileges, including the right to missions abroad as well as the organizational houses that are given to them, have created a competitive atmosphere among the IRGC forces to join this organization.

The activities of this committee are not always in the form of a "military mission," but often they travel to the countries in question as members of a scientific, industrial, or investor team from Iran. In this case, sabotage or assassination operations are not necessarily on their agenda, but rather, reconnaissance and information gathering for possible future operations are their main mission.

In 2011, a weapons cache was discovered in the Nigerian port of Lagos, and an Iranian businessman and IRGC member named Azim Aghajanzadeh was behind the smuggling. Two years later, Nigerian intelligence services identified an Islamist group in the same city, led by a man named Abdullah Mustafa, who had traveled to Iran twice and was planning operations against US and Israeli-affiliated tourist and business centers in the country.

In recent years, several operations have taken place in countries such as Kenya, Thailand, Georgia, Azerbaijan, India, and various cities in Turkey, in which the accused were members of the Quds Force. They were tried in those same countries and sentenced to prison.

As mentioned, in addition to military and terrorist operations, arms smuggling, money transportation, identifying groups prone to destruction, contacting the mafia and criminal groups that are willing to carry out operations in exchange for money are among the operational activities of this unit. In addition, demography and cultural studies, identifying ethnic and religious faults and differences in these countries, and collecting and comparing statistical information are part of the duties of this organization.

Source: Cosmos