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Who is IRGC Commander Abdolreza Shahlai, mastermind of attack on Camp Liberty

NCRI – Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards commander Brigadier Abdolreza Shahlai has been named by the National Council of Resistance of Iran as the mastermind behind the deadly attack on Camp Liberty, which left seven dead and 100 injured.

Shahlai is a top IRGC official who has been posted to Iraq for the past 20 years, where he has planned multiple assassinations of the coalition forces in Iraq – in particular US military personnel.

He has also been involved in recruiting Iraqis to send to terrorist training camps in Iran and is in charge of building the Iranian regime’s terrorist network in Iraq.

He is known to work closely with IRGC Major general Ghasem Suleimani, the commander of the terrorist Quds Force, and with Ahmad Forouzandeh, Abdolreza Shahlai and Taghavi – all top IRGC officials who oversee assassinations in Iraq.

In 2003, just a few months after the invasion of Iraq by the coalition forces, Ghasem Suleimani sent three top military officials at the Iran-Iraq borders to meddle with Iraqi affairs.

Ahmad Forouzandeh was in charge of the southern region, Taghavi was in charge of the central region and Abdolreza Shahlai was placed in charge of the western and northern regions.

Shahlai’s mission was to recruit paramilitary groups to be trained in Iran.  One such training centre is a military compound called the ‘Hezbollah Compound’ located near the city of Varamin.

This compound was used to train Badr forces who were sent to Iraq in 2003. The compound was then used by the Quds Force, headed by Shahlai, to train people recruited in Iraq.  

Shahlai, alongside Jafari Sahranavardi – who murdered Abdolrahman Ghasemloo in Berlin – acted as a key middle man to maintain contact between Iraqi president Jalal Talebani and the Iranian regime during the previous Government of Iraq.

Talebani has met with both Shahlai and Sahranavardi a number of times in Baghdad, and in one such meetings in 2004, they talked about the extradition of the members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) to Iran.

In 2004, Shahlai asked Abou Mehdi Mohandes, the leader of an Iraqi Islamic Group, to organize demonstrations against the presence of the MEK in Iraq.

In a news conference on March 22 of 2007, Alireza Jafarzadeh revealed the presence of terror training camps in Iran. Mr Jafarzadeh presented maps, addresses and the training programs of the camps and emphasized that these compounds headed by Shahlai are all used for training Iraqi terrorists.

The assassination of the Saudi ambassador in the Washington plot of October 2011 was headed by Karimi, and Abdolreza Shahlai is known to have acted as his deputy.

The US Treasury department enlisted two organizations and five individuals in its black list on September 16 of 2008. Shahlai was among them.

The US Treasury department emphasized: ” Abdul Reza Shahlai–a deputy commander in the IRGC–Qods Force–threatens the peace and stability of Iraq.”

According to the Treasury Department report, “Shahlai has also provided material and logistical support to extremist groups that conduct attacks against U.S. and Coalition Forces.  In one instance, Shahlai planned the January 20, 2007 attack by Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) against U.S. soldiers stationed at the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, Iraq.  Five U.S. soldiers were killed and three were wounded during the attack.”

The treasury Department report also pointed out that the Quds Force provides weapons, training and financial and logistic support to the terrorist groups that target the US military personnel as well as Iraqi citizens.