Iranians Brand Government As Toothless Following Militant Attack
In the wake of a spate of deadly militant attacks in southeastern Iran, criticism of the government's intelligence and security failures has intensified, labeling it a "paper tiger."
In the wake of a spate of deadly militant attacks in southeastern Iran, criticism of the government's intelligence and security failures has intensified, labeling it a "paper tiger."
Iran International has been flooded with messages from viewers critical of the Iranian government. These messages highlight a perceived discrepancy between the government's harsh treatment of its own citizens and its apparent inefficacy in dealing with external threats.
In a late-night attack on Wednesday, the Sunni militant group Jaish ul-Adl targeted at least five military posts and Revolutionary Guard bases in the cities of Chabahar and Rask. Clashes continued throughout the night, with the government announcing the neutralization of all attackers by Friday noon. At least 28 individuals were killed in the clashes, including 18 militants and 10 Iranian military personnel. Full casualty figures for the injured are unavailable, but reports indicate at least 15 Guards were wounded from a single unit. Jaish ul-Adl has a well-documented history of targeting Iranian forces, particularly the Revolutionary Guards, in areas bordering Pakistan. Designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US in 2010, the group has also been implicated in civilian casualties from past bombings.
The attack comes just a few days after an Israeli airstrike on Iran's consulate in Damascus, Syria, which killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including a high-ranking general. Since the outbreak of the Gaza War in October, suspected Israeli strikes have eliminated at least 18 IRGC commanders and advisors. In response, Iran has issued repeated threats of "harsh revenge," with pronouncements from regime officials, including the Supreme Leader himself.
A recurring theme in the messages sent to Iran International was that the attacks in Sistan-Baluchestan and Syria prove that the Islamic Republic is unable to respond to or prevent the attacks abroad and at home. “The Islamic Republic's real strength is in suppressing its own people," one of person said. “The government is able to quickly identify and punish any Iranian who expresses the slightest opposition to the regime.”
In response to the attacks in Syria and Sistan-Baluchistan Province, the Islamic Republic has resorted to threatening Israel with revenge. However, according to an audio file, this is merely a display of strength, as the Islamic Republic lacks the capability to defeat Israel.
Another Iranian highlighted that the Tehran's claims of its military power are a "sham" as it has not been able to defeat Jaish ul-Adl, a small guerrilla group that repeatedly carry out attacks in Iran. “They can't even handle Jaish ul-Adl, a guerrilla group, and yet they claim they can defeat Israel with all its equipment and intelligence superiority."
In January, IRGC targeted what it claimed were hideouts of the Sunni militants in Pakistan's Baluchistan with missiles. Islamabad retaliated with heavy fire a day later, marking the first attack by a foreign country inside Iranian soil since the end of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Iranians slammed the government for not responding to Pakistan’s airstrikes.
Frequent criticism of the Islamic Republic is that it maintains power solely through the repression of its own citizens. Its strength is only in "killing its own people," said an Iranian in an audio file sent to Iran International.
The Islamic Republic's intelligence capabilities are only good for "identifying opponents of compulsory hijab, harassing and imprisoning them, killing young protesters and silencing trade union activists."
All in all, these comments suggest a widespread skepticism about the Islamic Republic's claims about its military and intelligence capabilities. Instead, Iranians perceive the regime's true strength to lie in its ability to suppress dissent.
According to the report, all of the slain IRGC forces were targeted in Syria, with 16 in Damascus, one in Deir ez-Zor and one in Baniyas.
Since the Gaza war broke out, Iran’s proxies have attacked Israel from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and attacked US targets in the region as punishment for the US backing of Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of October 7. In the most deadly day for Jews since the holocaust, over 1,200 mostly civilians were murdered and over 250 taken hostage.
Israel’s Monday attacks against Iran's consulate building in Damascus have been the deadliest since the inception of the ongoing conflict in the region, killing seven IRGC forces, including two top commanders.
The most prominent figure killed in the recent attacks was Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the highest-ranking commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in Lebanon and Syria. Qods Force is the IRGC’s overseas branch coordinating proxy activities.
Zahedi, 63, joined the basij militias as a teenager and became involved in suppressing protesters. He was a mid-level commander during the Iran-Iraq war and was known by the pseudonym Ali Zahedi. In the mid-2000s, he went to Lebanon where he quickly established a strong network within Hezbollah, to the point he became “the only non-Lebanese member of the group’s council,” Amwaj Media reported.
Zahedi was appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the commander of the IRGC ground forces in 2006. He was later transferred to the IRGC Qods Force. According to his son, Zahedi had not returned to Iran since the start of the Gaza war, sparked by Iran-backed Hamas’s invasion of Israel, and only recently spent a few days in the country on the occasion of Nowruz, Iranian New Year.
The second most important person killed in Israel’s Monday strike was Zahedi’s deputy Mohammadhadi Haji Rahimi. Iranian media have called him the deputy coordinator of the IRGC Qods Force. According to reports, he had been a member of the Quds Force since it was formed and was one of its first commanders. Like Zahedi, Haji Rahimi was also a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war and participated in other regional wars in which Iran was involved in some way.
Hossein Amanollahi, Mehdi Jalalati, Mohsen Sedaghat, Ali Agha-Babaei, and Ali Salehi Rouzbahani were the other five members of the IRGC Quds Force who lost their lives in Israel’s Monday strikes.
In the past few months, two other high-ranking IRGC commanders were killed in suspected Israeli attacks in Syria: Razi Moussavi and Hojjatollah Omidvar.
Razi Mousavi (aka Seyyed Razi) was targeted by a direct airstrike on December 25. He headed IRGC’s ‘logistics’ and military coordination in Syria, getting weapons for and coordinating Iran-backed forces in Syria and Lebanon.
On January 20, a building in Damascus’s Mazzeh neighborhood was struck in an attack which claimed the life of Hojjatollah Omidvar (also known as Hajj Sadegh), a senior IRGC commander. He served as the deputy intelligence chief of Qods Force in Syria. Four other IRGC officers were also killed in the strike: Ali Aghazadeh, Saeed Karimi, Mohammad Amin Samadi and Hossein Mohammadi.
Among other IRGC victims of the alleged Israeli attacks are Behrouz Vahedi (targeted in Deir ez-Zor, March 26), Reza Zarei (targeted in Baniyas, March 1), Saeed Alidadi (targeted in south of Damascus, February 2), and Mohammadali Ataei Shourcheh and Panah Taghizadeh (both targeted in Damascus, December 2). The Iranian media have described them as “military advisers.”