Iran–Iraq War The IRGC emerged from the 1980–1988
Iran–Iraq War as a largely independent organization, which the clerical leadership relied on. The share of the Iranian military budget allocated to the IRGC in 1980 was 7.3%. This increased to 20.3% by 1982, and then almost 50% by 1987. visiting a battlefield during the
Iran–Iraq War, August 1988
Lebanon Civil War During the
Lebanese Civil War, the IRGC allegedly sent troops to train fighters in response to the
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In Lebanon, political parties had staunch opinions regarding the IRGC's presence. Some, mainly the Christian militias such as the
Lebanese Forces,
Phalanges, and most of the Christian groups declared war on the IRGC, claiming they violated Lebanese sovereignty, while others, including Muslim militias, were neutral to their presence. Groups such as the
PSP and
Mourabiton did not approve of their presence, but to preserve political alliances they decided to remain silent on the matter.
2006–2009: Lebanon and insurgencies During the
2006 Lebanon War, several Iranian Revolutionary Guards were reportedly killed by Israeli forces in
Baalbek, a town close to the Syrian border. Israeli officials believe that Iranian Revolutionary Guards forces were responsible for training and equipping the
Hezbollah fighters behind the missile attack on the
INS Hanit which left four Israeli sailors dead and seriously damaged the vessel. In January 2006, an IRGC
Falcon crashed near
Oroumieh, about 560 miles northwest of Tehran, near the Turkish border, Iranian media reported. All fifteen passengers died, including twelve senior IRGC commanders. Among the dead was General
Ahmad Kazemi, the IRGC ground forces commander, and
Iran–Iraq War veteran. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, spokesman for the IRGC, told state radio that both of the plane's engines had failed, its landing gear had jammed, and there was snow and poor visibility at the time. On 7 July 2008, investigative journalist and author
Seymour Hersh wrote an article in
The New Yorker stating that the Bush Administration had signed a
presidential finding authorizing the
CIA's
Special Activities Division to begin cross border paramilitary operations from Iraq and Afghanistan into Iran. These operations would be against the
Quds Force, the commando arm of the IRGC that had been blamed for repeated acts of violence in Iraq, and "high-value targets" in the war on terror. In October 2009, several top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards were killed in
a suicide bombing in the
Pishin region of
Sistan-Baluchistan, in the south-east of Iran. The Iranian state television said 31 people died in the attack, and more than 25 were injured. Shia and Sunni tribal leaders were also killed. The Sunni
Baluchi insurgent group
Jundullah claimed responsibility for the attack. The Iranian government initially blamed the
United States for involvement in the attacks, as well as
Saudi Arabia, the
United Kingdom and later
Pakistan for their alleged support of the Jundallah group. The United States denied involvement, but some reports of US assistance to Jundallah during the Bush administration have come from Western sources. The attacks appear to have originated in Pakistan and several suspects have been arrested.
Syria, 2011–2024 Prior to the Syrian war, Iran had between 2,000 and 3,000 IRGC officers stationed in Syria, helping to train local troops and managing supply routes of arms and money to neighboring Lebanon. General Qa'ani, Senior officer of Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, said: "If the Islamic Republic was not present in Syria, the massacre of civilians would have been twice as bad. They had physically and non-physically stopped the rebels from killing many more among the Syrian people." Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers, along with fellow
Shi'ite forces from Hezbollah and members of Iran's Basij militia participated in the capture of Qusair from rebel forces on 9 June 2013. In 2014, Iran increased its deployment of IRGC in Syria. Additionally, 354 Afghan combatants had died who were fighting under the command of the IRGC, as part of the IRGC-equipped and trained
Fatemiyoun Brigade, which is part of
Hezbollah Afghanistan. Another 21 Pakistanis also died as part of the
Zainabiyoun Brigade. The Afghan and Pakistani immigrants volunteered to go to Syria in exchange for salaries and citizenship. The Afghans were recruited largely from refugees inside Iran, and usually had combat experience before joining the IRGC; their status as members of the Iranian military is only vaguely acknowledged and sometimes denied, despite the troops being uniformed fighters led by IRGC officers. They were trained and equipped in Iran, paid salaries by the Iranian military, and received state funerals involving uniformed IRGC personnel. Farshad Hosounizadeh (IRGC colonel and former commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade), Mostafa Sadrzadeh (commander of the Omar Battalion of the Fatmiyoon Brigade), and Hamid Mojtaba Mokhtarband (IRGC commander).
Iraq, 2014–present Two battalions of Revolutionary Guards were reported to be operating in
Iraq trying to combat the
2014 Northern Iraq offensive. The IRGC is considered to be a principle backer of the
Popular Mobilization Forces, a loose coalition of
Shi'a militias allied with the Iraqi government in its fight against the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Major General
Qasem Soleimani was an instrumental force in the Iranian ground mission in Iraq against ISIS, purportedly planning the
Second Battle of Tikrit. In December 2014, Brigadier General
Hamid Taqavi, a veteran of the 1980–1988
Iran–Iraq War, was killed by snipers in
Samarra. In May 2017, Shaaban Nassiri, a senior IRGC commander was killed in combat near Mosul, Iraq. In December 2019, the
U.S. Air Force conducted airstrikes on weapons caches and facilities of the IRGC-sponsored militant group
Kata'ib Hezbollah. In retaliation, the group attacked the
U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in the
Green Zone. On 3 January 2020, Soleimani was killed in a
U.S. drone strike at
Baghdad International Airport along with the PMF commander
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
2014 Israeli drone shoot down On 24 August 2014, Iran revolutionary guards said that they had shot down an Israeli drone approaching the
Natanz nuclear facility. According to
ISNA, "The downed aircraft was of the stealth, radar-evasive type... and was targeted by a ground-to-air missile before it managed to enter the area." The
Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps took "full responsibility" for unintentionally shooting down the airplane with a surface-to-air missile on 8 January 2020. President
Hassan Rouhani stated that the plane was approaching an IRGC base when it was shot down: according to a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, the plane was mistaken for a cruise missile. On 17 January 2020, the IRGC were protected by
Ali Khamenei in the Friday sermon. He said that the downing was a "bitter" tragedy and additionally declared that "Iran's enemies" used the crash and the military's admission to "weaken" the IRGC.
Hostage Rescue inside Pakistan On 3 February 2021, IRGC announced that it had conducted an intelligence-based operation inside Pakistani territory to rescue two of its border guards who were taken as hostages by
Jaish ul-Adl organization two and a half years prior. The Pakistani army denied that Iran had carried out an intelligence operation inside its territory.
Involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war On 21 October 2022, a White House press release stated that
Iranian troops were in Crimea assisting Russia in launching
drone attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. On 24 November, Ukrainian officials said the military had killed ten Iranians and would target any further Iranian military presence in Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War assessed that these are likely Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC-affiliated personnel, as this formation is the primary operator of Iranian drones.
April 2024 Iranian strikes against Israel On 13 April 2024, the IRGC, in collaboration with the
Islamic Resistance in Iraq,
Hezbollah, and the
Houthis,
launched retaliatory attacks against
Israel and the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with
loitering munitions,
cruise missiles, and
ballistic missiles. It was retaliation for the
Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on 1 April, which killed two Iranian generals. The strike was seen as a
spillover of the
Gaza war and marked Iran's first direct attack on Israel since the start of
their proxy conflict. The attack was the largest attempted
drone strike in history, intended to overwhelm anti-aircraft defenses. It was the first time since
Iraq's 1991 missile strikes that Israel was directly attacked by a state force.
Twelve-Day War On 13 June 2025, Israel launched a "preemptive" strike targeting high-ranking members of the Islamic revolution and Iran's nuclear infrastructure and key nuclear scientists. The opening attack killed 30 IRGC generals and 9 nuclear scientists. The strike, referred to as Operation Rising Lion launched the 12 day
Twelve-Day War.
US airstrikes damaged the nuclear facilities at
Natanz,
Isfahan, and
Fordow. Notable IRGC generals killed during the Twelve-Day War include: •
Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the armed forces and the second-highest commander after Ayatollah Khamenei. •
Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. •
Gholam Ali Rashid, deputy commander in chief of the Armed Forces. •
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the airspace unit of the Revolutionary Guards. •
Gholamreza Mehrabi, deputy intelligence chief of the Armed Forces. •
Mehdi Rabbani, deputy commander of operations for the Armed Forces. • Davood Sheikhian, the commander of air defense. • Khosro Hassani, the deputy intelligence chief of the aerospace unit. •
Mohammad Kazemi, the head of the intelligence •
Hassan Mohaghegh, the deputy to General Kazemi. == Weapons of mass destruction ==