The first time that Iranian citizens heard the name of the special unit may go back to the early 1970s; when one of the first street protests after the revolution took place in Mashhad, one of the most religious cities in Iran, in Bahman 1357.

In 1970, the government of Iran merged the city police, gendarmerie, and Islamic Revolutionary Committees to form the law enforcement force. During that time, a unit called the Special Guards was also formed, consisting of some of the most radical individuals who had previously been employed in security institutions for a decade.

Since those days, wherever Iranian citizens came to the streets in protest and for their demands, special forces, regardless of what the people wanted, responded to them with armed and violent confrontations, using the language of arrows, bullets, and blood.

The peak point of the presence of a special and widespread suppression of Iranian citizens occurred during the years 96 to 98; years in which, due to the inefficiency of the government in the economic sector, disregard for the rights of citizens, and decrease in the level of social freedoms, even within the framework of the constitution in Iran, the distance between street protests decreased from at least once every ten years to once a year.

The streets of Iranian cities witnessed three widespread protests between the years 1396 and 1398. In December 2017, August 2018, and November 2019, the streets turned red with blood and the special forces followed suit, roaming around.

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“Except for the first ones who were chosen from the city guards, commanders and leaders of the law enforcement forces have always been selected from among the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards during the past years. Reza Seifollahi, Hedayat Lotfian, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moghaddam, and Hossein Eshtriyeh Sepahyani were the ones who relied on the seat of the overall commander of the law enforcement forces, but the special unit always chose its commander from among the members of the Islamic Revolution Committee.”

One of the most prominent figures who commanded the special unit for a long period of time was Seyed Mojtaba Abdollahi. He launched and commanded the Mousa ibn Ja’far unit during the war and was later chosen as the commander of the 28th Rouhollah division. During the leadership of Seyed Ali Khamenei, this long-time comrade sat on the throne of commanding the special unit of the Guards, with the firm determination to suppress any rebellion or uprising against the leader of Iran.

Seyyed Mojtaba Abdollahi remained the commander of the special unit for twenty-one years until 1391 (2012) and ultimately, at his own request and with the title of senior advisor, left the command of the special forces of the law enforcement unit. However, the presence of the special unit in suppressing popular protests became more prominent and noticeable every moment.

An overview of the presence of special forces.

The first protest that the special forces came to suppress was related to the student protests in Mashhad; a protest that took place due to the destruction of homes of marginalized people in line with the policies of economic liberalization. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in these protests, chanting against the authorities of the Islamic Republic, but when government buildings throughout the city became targets of angry people’s attacks, the special forces entered the square.

Two years later, the people of Qazvin, dissatisfied that Qazvin had not become an independent province, took to the streets. Special forces in this paragraph were also ordered to do whatever they could to return the protesters to their homes.

For the generation of writers who were spending their student days in the late 1970s, the special presence in street protests after the attack on the university district was a new phenomenon. This time, they came to the streets with a strange and terrifying authority.

Special forces were present that year, wearing black uniforms and covered faces, riding motorcycles with shields and batons, alongside individuals shouting “Heidar! Heidar!” and beating and kicking protesting citizens, especially students. The goal was to prevent the protesters from reaching the vicinity of the leader of the Islamic Republic, even at the cost of their lives.

Ten years later, following the non-reading of the votes of a large number of Iranian citizens in the presidential election, the most widespread anti-government protests with political underpinnings occurred.

In June 2009, the special unit alone was unable to return the flood of people on the streets to their homes. All cities were a scene of citizens seeking their vote. For this reason, the forces of the Tharallah Sepah Pasdaran base, as well as the personal clothing and Basijis, rushed to the aid of the special unit.

In December 2017, once again the spark of popular protests began in Mashhad. Disobedient citizens used the platform of social media to organize a gathering in protest against economic pressures and challenged the economic policies of President Hassan Rouhani’s government.

The citizens’ protest, which initially began with economic demands and fighting against proven corruption within the government, quickly spread to over one hundred small and large cities, and their demands went beyond just economic hardships. The ruling authority suddenly took control and saw the slogans as a sign of the return of the leader of the Islamic Republic; therefore, it was time for the special unit to take action once again.

The peak of unique creativity;

November Protests۷۶

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Sardar Hassan Kermi became the deputy of Seyyed Mojtaba Abdollahi and the commander of a special unit in 1391. His forces carried out the bloodiest crackdown on the streets since the 1357 revolution in Aban 1398.

During the days of 24 to 26 of Aban 1398, the special forces, as their commanders later revealed in their speeches, used weapons such as axes, blocking equipment, batons, shields, water cannons, various gases, and electronic, audio, and lighting tools to maintain order.

International organizations such as Amnesty International reported at least 324 people killed by security forces in the streets over the course of four days (1), but some news sources, including Reuters, quoted government sources in Iran estimating the death toll to be around 1,500. Reuters also revealed that the Iranian leader had ordered security forces to suppress the protests “by any means necessary.”

۹۶

Protests in December 96 and November 96.

How did “98” become “sum”?

Commander Hassan Karami, commander of special units of the law enforcement forces, in response to the question of how the protests of December 2017 were controlled, stated that law enforcement forces were active in more than seventy locations throughout the country and used sound vehicles.

The sound car is a system that, according to Commander Karami, broadcasts the voice of the field commander up to two kilometers and within a radius of five hundred meters. It allows for giving a final warning to protesters with the assurance that their voice will be heard.

He confirmed in his statements that the name of the operation by special forces, which was designed to suppress protests in December, was “Full Force”; because according to him, the special forces did not use their “full power” against the protesting citizens, but instead tried to control the population in a “restraining manner”.

He also emphasized that the special unit’s strategy was based on dialogue, warning, and strong caution, and during the control of protests, “the least damage was done to public and population property.”

Sardar Kermi is speaking about the operation “Full Force” under the shadow of “special skills and expertise” in “collecting” protests, while according to reports published in Iranian media, in the protests of December 2017, which began on December 7 and continued until the end of the month, at least eight thousand people were arrested. The names of eighteen people have been confirmed by official media as those killed in these protests on the streets by security forces and special units; in addition, some of the detainees died under suspicious circumstances in prisons and security and judicial institutions have never given a clear answer to the plaintiffs and families of those killed.

In November 2019, following a sudden increase in gasoline prices, widespread protests erupted in both large and small cities in Iran. These protests were initially peaceful and focused on the demands of the people, but suddenly security forces resorted to violence in some cities. This time, however, there was no special unit to forcefully “collect” the citizens’ protest gatherings with the code word “full force”.

Initially, the internet network was shut down by the order of the country’s Security Council and for “security reasons”, and silence and unawareness from Iran continued for a week until special forces and Basij units had enough time to gain control over the situation and suppress the citizens.

Iranian media reported, quoting Ramadan Sharif, the spokesperson for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, that in more than 150 cities in Iran, there have been “small and large incidents and events” in which in most areas have been resolved within 24 hours and in some cities within 72 hours.

Salar Abnoush, the commander of Basij operations in Iran, also described the events of these three days as “a full-scale world war against the system and the revolution” in a speech on November 30th. He said, “As someone who was on the scene, I believe that only God saved us.”

The NAJA Information Center also announced in a report that until Saturday, the second of Azar, it has identified and arrested one hundred and eighty leaders as the main instigators of the protests.

After the installation of internet services and the release of videos depicting the suppression of protests in various cities on social media, a clearer picture of the situation in Iran during those days was shown. Independent sources reported direct shooting by “special guard forces and personal security forces” and the use of military forces with “machine guns and rifles and shotguns” against unarmed protesters. The website Kalameh quoted officials from Behesht-e-Zahra as saying that only 156 bodies of compatriots have been transferred to this cemetery in Tehran and 80 bodies have been sent to other cities.

Various news and human rights sources had also reported the killing of dozens of people during the three-day crackdown on protests in Mahshahr and surrounding cities.

The dimensions of the massacre and suppression of November 2019 are still unclear after nearly three years, but in describing the violence of the special unit, it is enough to say that Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, said: “In a session, one of the representatives of the cities asked Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, if it was possible to shoot at least at the feet or lower back, so that direct shots were fired at the heads and faces of the protesters? The Minister of Interior also responded that well! Shooting at the feet had also been done; a response that surprised the representatives and they were amazed that the Minister had addressed such an issue with indifference.”

As citizens of Iran, as a generation that has witnessed the presence of the oppressive force of the Special Forces in many of our contemporary historical events since 2008, we still do not know exactly how many members and official forces this unit has. However, according to the commanders of this unit, the fact that only “twenty thousand members of the Special Forces” are deployed during the days of the third Shia Imam’s Arbaeen pilgrimage is an indication that a large portion of the country’s budget is spent on maintaining this unit. With certainty and considering the public and social dissatisfaction and the possibility of street protests, even though twenty thousand members of the Special Forces have been sent to border areas, a considerable number of them are ready to be present in the streets of various cities in Iran, but not to stand beside the people; they are ready to stand against the citizens.

Notes:

۱۰:

1- The information of 324 identified victims of the November 2019 protests.

International Amnesty

November 25th, 2021.

2- Sardar Karami: We had heavy missions in 96 and 98.

24-hour news and analysis website

October 13th, 2021.