Retired Guards Member Killed in Sanandaj

Less than two weeks after a general from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was killed in north western Iran, along with an officer from the police, Iranian government news agencies have announced the death of another victim, this time a former IRGC member in the Kurdish town of Sanandaj. Fars news agency published a report on the burial ceremony of Ibrahim Mohammadi Tazehabad’s body in the town.

Speaking on the killing, the IRGC commander in Sanandaj Abdolhossein Yousefi, told the media, “Ibrahim Mohammadi was a Muslim Kurdish pishmarg (a Kurdish fighter) and a resident of Sanandaj who had been retired for some 15 years.” The Iranian regime calls the local IRGC members in Kurdistan “Kurdish pishmarg ,” a term that was largely used during the Kurdish wars in the 1980s when government forces fought ordinary Kurds who supported calls for more autonomy. Yousefi said an investigation into the killing had been launched by security and police forces in the Kurdistan province.

Government media reports did not specify the exact location of where the former Guard member was killed but some Kurdish sources have written that the incident took place on February 26 near the village of Ajgareh in the central section of Sanandaj province. According to these sources, Ibrahim Mohammadi, who was commonly known as Bale Ghorchi, was killed by bullet wounds fired by unidentified individuals. No group has till now claimed responsibility for the killing.

Killing of IRGC Generals

The news of the killing of a former Guards commander is published soon after the ground forces of the IRGC had announced in early February the killing of Guard general seyed Hamid Tabatabai in north western Iran. According to these sources, the general was killed while carrying out “engineering duties.” No details were provided in the government run or affiliated media in that killing incident as well, but Tabatabai had been referred to as a “model for guerilla type local battles for the young Guard cadre.”

Prior to the killing of Tabatabai, government news agencies had also reported the death of a police officer. IRNA had named the victim as Javad Montashloo who had been killed in a battle with “armed rebels” near the town of Ghasre Shirin close to the Iraqi border. No further details have been provided about this killing either.

Armed Kurdish Pishmarg

The term Muslim Kurdish Pishmarg that state media used for the retired Guards general who had been killed is a term that was originally coined by the late ayatollah Beheshti and Hashemi Rafsanjani to counter the term pishmarg – literally meaning ready to die - that rebel Kurds used for themselves in their struggle against the government, i.e., the Kurdish Pishmarg. Beheshti and Rafsanjani used the term for the IRGC’s newly created unit called the Sazemane Pishmargane Mosalmane Kord (the Muslim Kurdish Pishmarg Organization) which was originally called the Niruhaye Cherikie Ahzabe Kord (Partisan Force of the Kurdish Parties), created in 1979 under the command of Mohammad Borujerdi and some local Kurdish residents to fight the autonomy supporting armed Kurds. Islamic groups in Kurdistan, including members of the Maktabe Ghoran had a crucial role in the creation of this group. By naming the members of their force pishmarg , government forces attempted to dilute the meaning of Kurdish freedom fighters – the pishmarg - who fought government forces in their support for greater local autonomy. In their latest publication, the Islamic groups declare their goal to be, “Death or freedom for Kurdish Muslims.”

In the last three decades, a large number of members and retirees of the government’s Partisan Force have been killed in Kurdistan.