US Strike Kills Five Iran-Backed Forces In Iraq

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday that the IRGC forces were in Syria “on an advisory mission,” threatening that "No action against the interests and security of Iran, as well as our advisory forces in Syria, will go unanswered, and this has been proven before."  

He did not elaborate on when and where Iran has avenged attacks on its forces as the Islamic Republic usually cheers about attacks on American and Israeli targets by its proxy militia across the region but hardly ever claims responsibility for such strikes. 

Since the global outcry against Iran’s support for militant groups has intensified following the onslaught of Israelis by Iran-backed Hamas on October 7, the Islamic Republic authorities, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself, claim that the regime has no proxy regional forces. Meanwhile, Iran admits that it provides financial and logistic support for the likes of Hamas but claims it has no say in their operations. Additionally, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has an extra-territorial wing – the Quds (Qods) force, which has either established or funded several such groups. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed Saturday that two of its officers were killed in Syria, after Damascus announced that Israeli airstrikes hit a number of targets near the Syrian capital overnight. The IRGC said Mohammad Ali Atai (Ataei) Shoorcheh and Panah Taghizadeh were “martyred” while on an advisory mission to Syria, blaming the “Zionists” for their death. 

Israeli airstrikes hit several areas on the outskirts of Damascus early Saturday, causing "material losses," according to Syrian state media. The strikes targeted the southern Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, where Hezbollah-affiliated forces operate. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported two Syrians and two foreign citizens killed, with five others wounded. 

Late in September, the open-source intelligence social media account Intelli Times announced that Taghizadeh was about to arrive in Syria to help Iran-backed forces in the region. Intelli Times also revealed that the officer was part of Unit 340 of IRGC’s Quds Force.

While Israel’s military does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah fighters, attempting to gain a foothold in the country over the last decade. The recent surge in attacks aligns with the Israel-Hamas conflict that started in October. 

Since then, Israel has targeted Syria, impacting international airports in Damascus and Aleppo for over a month, likely thwarting the transfer of weapons from Iran to its proxies in Gaza and on Israel's borders. Iran has played a significant role in supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the 12-year civil war, deploying fighters to tip the balance in Assad's favor. Despite Tehran maintaining what it calls a military advisory role, numerous Iranian Revolutionary Guard members have lost their lives in the Syrian conflict.

As scrutiny deepens, the CBSA is investigating dual nationals with links to Tehran. Nine cases have already been forwarded to the Immigration and Refugee Board for a thorough assessment of their eligibility to enter Canada.

The stringent measures are a direct outcome of a policy implemented by the Liberal government last year, coinciding with widespread protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, in the custody of Iran's morality police.

Concerns about Canada serving as a safe haven for high-ranking Iranian officials were exacerbated after the identification of a former Tehran police chief at a gym near Toronto in 2021.

Under pressure from the opposition Conservatives and the Iranian-Canadian community, the Liberal government, under the leadership of then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino, designated the Islamic Republic of Iran as a "regime that has engaged in terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations" under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) in November 2022.

The designation resulted in the inadmissibility of tens of thousands of Iranian regime officials, including several from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Canada.

As of November 20, 2023, the CBSA has reviewed around 17,800 visa applications under the IRPA designation, leading to 78 individuals being denied access to the country.

Based on referrals and tips, the CBSA has initiated investigations into 141 individuals with status in Canada, closing 38 cases. Ten individuals have been deemed inadmissible under the IRPA designation.

University students living in the diaspora or studying abroad are utilized as an asset to promote Shiite Islamism in Western democracies and recruited to transfer information and know-how to the um-ul-Qora (Islamic motherland).

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Ahmad Vaezi to oversee the Islamic students' organizations in Europe in 2020. As Khamenei’s trustee, he is the direct link between Khamenei’s office and the Islamic Students Associations in Europe. An ardent supporter of the Islamic Republic regime, writing in a letter to members of this union, he said "Try to follow your role model, the great leader of Islam, martyr Qasem Soleimani,” referring to the slain commander killed by the US in 2020. Responsible for the violent proxies across the Middle East, Soleimani has now become a symbolic figurehead for the Iranian regime spreading its influence and destruction not only across the Middle East but to young students in Europe. 

Until the 1979 revolution, Islamic student associations in the West mainly consisted of Iranian students and worked against the Pahlavi monarchy while most of them were receiving generous scholarships provided by the government.

After the revolution, these associations, due to the financial need for government resources and the desire of students to gain power and status through the new regime, were completely at the service of the ideology of the Islamic Republic and purged the opposition forces such as Marxists and MEK members. For about four decades, these associations start their annual gatherings with the messages of Khamenei, Iran’s leader.

While millions of Iranian university students pursue their education by getting loans, working, and using their hard-earned parents’ savings, these students and their family members have a luxury life in universities abroad. 

Due to this privilege, they are willing to perform several functions for the regime including spreading political propaganda, participating in anti-Israel Qods (Quds) rallies, and recruiting their professors and colleagues to steal information for bolstering military and technical knowledge in addition to establishing pseudo companies to help Iran’s military programs.

Members of the Islamic Students Association in Britain have met at least eight times with commanders and members of the IRGC since 2020. According to the Jewish Chronicle, the text of the commanders’ speeches has focused on anti-Semitism and anti-West sentiments. They also organized a technological conference held in Tehran in 2023 with invitees including faculty members living in the UK and people who are involved in tech companies in Iran, mostly working for the IRGC. 

History has shown that any member of a branch in the coalition of Islamic students associations who criticizes the government faces certain arrest on returning to Iran. An example is Saeed Razavi Faqih, a reformist, who was arrested after entering Iran in 1992 and sentenced to five years in prison and 148 lashes.

Later, they added another 3.5 years to his sentence in prison. Razavi Faqih, who was elected as the general secretary of this coalition, revealed that the associations receive money for their expenses from Khamenei's office through the leader's representatives in Europe. After 1992, reformists were purged from these associations.

Every few years, the members of these associations are invited to Iran, paid for by the government, to meet with Khamenei, groomed for eventually joining the government ranks. The last such meeting was on January 2, 2023, at the height of the student repression during the protests of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Even amidst mass oppression of students in Iran, the associations still firmly aligned with the regime in Tehran.

Until the beginning of the1990s, members of these associations were mainly related to Shia clerics who were sent to Europe by government propaganda organizations for religious programs such as Muharram mourning and Ramadan ceremonies. In recent years, the connection between the members of these associations has reached the level of continuous communication with the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The overall path to support a more military-security based regime rather than a religious or hierocratic one is well underway. Khamenei has been successful in transforming the hardcore power of the regime into the hands of a small group of IRGC commanders and sideline the religious establishment and as each year's budget shows, that priority only strengthens year by year.

Nasser Kanaani said Monday that “the country has the freedom to utilize the funds based on its needs", in response to the approval of a bill in the US Congress aimed at blocking Iran's assets in Qatar.

Kanaani said, "The bill necessitates approval from the US Senate and the President of the United States to become operational. The US government, bound by its international commitments and agreements with Iran concerning the released financial resources involving third-party countries, is obligated and committed. We have secured necessary assurances in this regard."

On Thursday, the US House of Representatives passed a bipartisan measure titled the "No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act." The measure aims to prevent Iran from accessing the $6 billion recently transferred by the US in a prisoner swap. Republicans pushed for the step in response to Iran's alleged involvement in the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which triggered the worst conflict in Gaza since the Iran-backed group took control in 2007. 

The tentative agreement between the US and Iran in August led to the release of five detained Americans in Tehran and an undisclosed number of Iranians imprisoned in the US. The agreement involved the transfer of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets from banks in South Korea to Qatar. However, following the Hamas attack, the US and Qatar agreed to restrict Iran's access to the funds, stopping short of a complete refreeze.

According to the judgment issued on Saturday, Soha Sabeti received a sentence of 33 months of punitive imprisonment, a 13-year prohibition from engaging in any educational activities, and a cash penalty of approximately $750.

Similarly, Behrouz Rahmani and Sanaz Alizadeh Roshankouhi were each handed a 10-year ban on educational activities, accompanied by a cash penalty of around $500.

The charges include "managing and membership in groups, societies… within the country with the aim of undermining national security, promoting the interests of groups or organizations opposing the Islamic Republic system, engaging in educational activities, and promoting the Baha'i Faith."

The revolutionary court judge claimed the group were involved in educational activities and the implicit promotion of the Baha'i Faith, incorporating its principles and beliefs, especially aimed at children, forbidden under the Islamic Republic which only permits the practice of Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Islam.

Recent weeks have witnessed a surge in pressure from security and judicial institutions targeting the roughly 300,000 strong Baha'i community.

Baha'is constitute the country's largest non-Muslim religious minority and have faced systematic persecution and harassment since the revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic.