{"id":346722,"date":"2026-07-20T19:15:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=346722"},"modified":"2026-07-20T19:15:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:15:45","slug":"how-irans-1988-massacre-authored-a-blueprint-for-todays-shadow-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/how-irans-1988-massacre-authored-a-blueprint-for-todays-shadow-war\/","title":{"rendered":"How Iran\u2019s 1988 Massacre Authored a Blueprint for Today\u2019s Shadow War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NCRI
NCRI supporters stage a protest against executions in Iran, highlighting the legacy of the 1988 massacre and calling for accountability and justice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, as the threat of foreign bombardment dominates international headlines, the Islamic Republic of Iran is quietly accelerating a different kind of war. Hidden behind the fog of regional conflict, the regime is currently executing political prisoners at a staggering rate. It is a grim, calculated distraction: draw the world\u2019s eyes to the skies, while the true threat to the ruling clerics\u2014the millions of Iranian citizens demanding freedom\u2014is systematically suffocated underground.<\/p>\n

To understand this brutal calculus, one must look back thirty-eight years to a summer when the regime wrote its ultimate blueprint for survival. The playbook we see today was drafted in the blood of the 1988 prison massacres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Myth of a Reactionary Purge<\/h2>\n

For decades, Tehran has peddled a convenient fiction to justify the massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners within the space of just a few months during the summer of 1988, the overwhelming majority of whom were members and supporters of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK).<\/p>\n

The official narrative claims the executions were a frantic, wartime reaction to a cross-border offensive launched on July 25, 1988, by Iran\u2019s National Liberation Army (NLA), known as Operation Eternal Light.<\/p>\n

But the historical chronology demolishes that alibi.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Today is the 33rd anniversary of July 19, 1988, the start of #Iran<\/a>'s so-called "Death Commissions," on the order of Khomeini, which carried out the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran. #1988Massacre<\/a> #ProsecuteRaisiNOW<\/a> \u2014@MorganOrtagus<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/ofPJmUS2PA<\/a><\/p>\n

— Alireza Jafarzadeh (@A_Jafarzadeh) July 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n