Iran's opposition is targeting senior officers
of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iranian opposition sources said several senior officers of the IRGC have
been tracked in major cities, including Teheran. The sources reported the
killing of several officers of the IRGC and the Basij militia.
On July 14, an IRGC colonel was stabbed to death in Teheran, Iran's media said, according to Middle East Newsline. The sources said Col. Morteza Moinfar, commander of
the Quds Force, was killed by several unidentified assailants.
The Quds Force has been regarded as the foreign intelligence service of
the IRGC. The unit has been responsible for aiding Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic
Jihad and Fatah as well as other insurgency groups in the Middle East, Asia
and South America.
The IRGC unit was linked to the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in
Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American soldiers. The force was also said to
have been responsible for the killing of dissidents in Europe in the early
1990s.
Iran's media reported that Moinfar was stabbed repeatedly. So far,
authorities have not announced the arrest of suspects.
In June, a Basij officer was stabbed to death in the Baghestan area of
Teheran. Iranian opposition sources said the officer was attacked by two
young Iranians after he threatened them with a pistol.
Iran has also been rocked by Kurdish unrest in the northwestern city of
Mahabad. On Monday, an Iranian soldier was killed in clashes with Mahabad
residents.
