Preparing the Basij for Crushing Urban Unrest

As the anxiety of security-military agencies of the Islamic republic over the deepening economic crisis and unprecedented inflation in the country heightens and raises the fears and possibility of public uprisings, senior Revolutionary Guard commanders and the Basij para-military force have announced preparatory measures and various planned exercises of special units under their command to confront and crackdown possible public unrest.

Guard commander of Tehran’s Mohammad Rasoololah force announced the upcoming of a large military exercise by Beytolmoghadas, Ashoora, Imam Ali and Imam Hossein battalions in Tehran and said, “This military exercise named Imam Jaafar Sadegh exercise was initially planned to take place prior to the defense week but has been postponed to take place on October 12 and 13, 2012.

Guard General Mohsen Kazemian said in this regard, “This military exercise has been planned with today’s enemy in mind. It is a security, defense and assistance exercise and shall be simultaneously held in various parts of Tehran.”

The announcement to hold this military exercise in Tehran comes just a month after the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij underwent some organizational changes and after merging the Ashoora and Alzahra security-military units into Beitolmoghadas rapid reaction units, ultimately held military exercises in a number of provinces of the country.

Two weeks ago, after Basij’s military-security exercises in the province of Lorestan, former Guard commander for Tehran’s Seyed al-Shohada force who is also the current Basij deputy supreme commander announced that “weekly military exercises would be held regularly in all provinces of the country by the rapid reaction units” of the force in one or two provinces simultaneously.

Guards commander Ali Fazli also said, “Today, there are six thousand Ashoora and al-Zahra brigades that have even greater capabilities and have been organized under the Beytolmoghadas units.” “Under Basij’s reorganized structure, new models of defense have been envisioned among which are the Beytolmoghadas rapid reaction battalions.”

He explained the purpose of the exercises to be “defense readiness and the demonstration of the battle capabilities of the Basij.” He said these units had participated in the exercises for the first time across the country, adding, their effectiveness would be studied and evaluated.”

He also said that the effectiveness of the Basij had changed and that good measures had been taken over the force in areas of “hard threats, semi-hard threats and soft threats.” This exercise took place in the presence of 144 groups under 16 rapid reaction units in coordination with the Abolfazl Guards force of Lorestan in the town of Khoramabad.

Another Guards commander, Ali Ostad Hosseini announced last week that military-security exercises of these units had been held in the province of Semnan. “The experience of the eight year war has shown us that in the military defense of the revolution the capabilities of Basij forces and militia had to be utilized.”

This commander of the Ghaem al-Mohammad Guards force of Semnan stressed that “Basijis are the solders of the supreme leader,” adding that they had to be equipped and to increase their readiness in all aspects of the hard, semi-hard and soft war. “Had it not been for the lively readiness and presence of the Basijis in the revolutionary domain, we would have been the subject of repeated attacks by the enemy.” This maneuver in Semnan lasted for three days and involved 16 units of the Imam Hossein brigades.

The operation of Ashoora and al-Zahra battalions under the name of Beytolmoghadas rapid reaction forces and the announcement that military-security exercises will be held in all the provinces of the country by the end of the year take place at a time when it appears that the security and military predictions for upcoming months are forcing senior Guards commanders to expand the presence of the Basij presence in cities and urban areas.

The Basij has a number of security-military units within the Ashoora, al-Zahra, Imam Hossein, Karbala and Zolfaghar battalions which were created in the force in the early 90s. Imam Ali battalions were formed soon after the demonstrations that broke out after the 2009 rigged presidential elections.

Sobhe Sadegh weekly newspaper, the official mouthpiece  of the Revolutionary Guards, revealed in June 2010 that Imam Hossein and Imam Ali battalions received 45 days of military and security training and that these units were commissioned  a year later in September of 2011.

Ashoora battalions were formed in the early years of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s second presidency in 1993 and 1994 following riots on orders from Guard officials and operated along with al-Zahra special battalions. These units were later used to crush civil unrest in Ghazvin and other urban areas. In1999 when plain-clothes agents entered the dormitories of Tehran University, Tabriz University and others students protested and Ashoora were main units sent in to crush the student demonstrations.

Mohammad Ali Aziz Jaafari, the current top Guards commander and the former deputy commander of the Guards’ ground forces which controls the Saralah special Guards force is among the architects of the Ashoora, al-Zahra, Imam Hossein, Zolfaghar and Karbala special force battalions.

In the demonstrations that broke out in 2003 in Tehran, riots in Azerbaijan and Ardebil in 2006 and the protests of 2009 against the announced results of the rigged elections Ashoora battalions played a key role in cracking down on demonstrators.

Various Guards commanders have publicly lauded the efforts of Basij battalions in suppressing demonstrations and have even said that without them the revolution would have been ended.

The planned budget for military-security Basij battalions is 350 million Dollars more than the total Basij budget. In 2004, the seventh Majlis passed a bill that specifically allocated the equivalent of 350 million Dollars to provide the needed equipment for the Ashoora and al-Zahra Basij battalions. The subsequent announcement of this amount by Basij commanders indicates that this funding seems to have been institutionalized for the special Basij forces. General Mohammad Motahari, the then commander of the 41^st Sarolah battalion of Kerman announced in October/November of 2000 that, “Every year the equivalent of 350 million Dollars would be allocated to meet the equipment needs of the Ashoora and al-Zahra battalions.”

In the last 5 years, based on Ahmadinejad administration’s plans, all battle units of the Basij force were to be equipped with lethal weapons but according to statements made by senior Guards commanders, these security-military units of the Basij para-military force seem to have also been equipped with heavy battlefield weaponry.

It should be noted that last year, the deputy director of the Guards security agency had said that the “enemy” was planning on “creating social unrest and semi-hard war” against the country. Revolutionary Guards General Majid Hosseini had stressed that “the goal of the sanctions of the enemy is to create seditions and economic pressure and social unrest, which have not succeeded until now.”

Other internal bulletins of the Revolutionary Guards have repeatedly written about measures to confront a possible war between the US and its allies against the Islamic republic. These publications hypothesize about Western plans to weaken and ultimately attack the Islamic republic by supporting uprisings, strengthening the opposition, international sanctions, economic pressure, and ultimately military force.

International and bilateral economic sanctions against the Islamic republic particularly since a few months ago, have created steep inflation and shortages across the country, prompting officials to warn of possible protests and demonstrations.