IRGC's role in the eight year Iran-Iraq war
By: Reza Shafa
The Iran-Iraq war broke out in September 1980. IRGC's declared function was to suppress the democratic forces within the country under the pretext of fighting the "counter-revolutionaries." However, the war brought an inevitable added task; IRGC had to enter war by embarking on the asymmetric warfare in the fronts. Mostafa Chamran, an expert on guerrilla warfare was later killed in the northern fronts, took the helm in this period of the IRGC's existence. Since the Iraqi army fought a better war than did the IRGC in the early days, the force soon put aside the asymmetric warfare and turned into classic tactics by organizing new units to keep up with the growing demands.

IRGC foothold in Lebanon

From the start, the IRGC had intelligence agents dispatched to the war-torn nation barely coming off a dark chapter of its history. On June 6, 1982, on an official order by Khomeini, the IRGC sent a full brigade to Lebanon to lay foundations to establish a new Islamic republic there. Prophet Mohammad Brigade, under the command of Hossein Mosleh, himself an intelligence expert, worked directly under IRGC central Intelligence Office in Tehran. Following termination of Mosleh's mission in Lebanon, his brigade was replaced with a division 2,000 strong called Lebanon Division. However, the newly assigned division headquarters was not in Beirut but in Damascus. The massive explosion of 1983 which leveled the U.S. marine barracks leaving 241 marines killed and that of the French forces in Beirut was the work of Lebanon Division.  Top mullahs' official including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohsen Reazii then the IRGC commander bragged about the operation for a long time. 

Lebanon was the first well-planned and executed experience for IRGC in expanding fundamentalism riding on the back of its terror machine. That was exactly what Khomeini had in mind when he said "Iran is the epicenter for Muslim world." And "We do not recognize any geographical boundaries. The only lines that divide the people are those of their beliefs."

To be continued 
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Reza Shafa is an expert on the Iranian regime's intelligence networks, both in Iran and abroad. He has done extensive research on VEVAK (MOIS), IRGC's Intelligence Office, and Qods Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.