Why has Israel killed Iranian generals in Syria and who are the Quds Force?

Iran has vowed revenge against Israel. Iran’s state TV quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying, “We will make them regretful about the crime and similar acts,” the AP reported. Here’s all you need to know about the strikes, their target, and why there are concerns that the attack may lead to an escalation of violence in the region.

Who are the Quds Force?

The Quds Force is the paramilitary and intelligence wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG). The IRCG was set up by the leader of the Islamic Revolution and Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1979.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution dislodged the ruling Shah from power, a theocratic state was established in Iran. For its protection, the IRCG was created to deal with both domestic and external threats.

“Now highly institutionalized, it (IRGC) remains a force parallel to that of Iran’s regular armed forces,” according to the think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). It has army, naval, and air force wings, and its total membership numbers around 125,000. Another branch, the Basij paramilitary force, “claims it can mobilize some six hundred thousand volunteers”, the CFR note says.

Domestically, IRCG members have been appointed to top government posts over the years. What concerns the rest of the region, however, is the IRGC’s military actions, espionage operations, and cybersecurity attacks. In 2019, the United States designated the IRGC (and the Quds Force as part of it) a terrorist organisation.

Then President Donald Trump issued a statement saying “This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft. The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.”

What is Israel’s problem with the Quds Force?

Tehran has mobilised Quds Force units across the Middle East to secure its interests beyond Iranian borders.

Being a predominantly Shiite Muslim country in a region where Sunni Saudi Arabia is also a large, resource-rich and influential nation, the two countries have been geopolitical rivals for long. Both control proxy organisations that are involved in the various ethnic and religion-based conflicts in the region.

Iran sees Israel’s strong alliance with the US – Ayatollah Khomeini is said to have referred to the US and Israel as the “Great Satan” and “Little/Lesser Satan” respectively – as unwanted Western interference in the Middle East, and a direct threat to its security and interests. Iran has been under various degrees of US sanctions since the Revolution of 1979.

Iran does not recognise the legitimacy of Israel, and the two countries have been openly hostile to each other since the early 1990s. Each has engineered proxy conflicts and covert operations against the other. Israel considers the Iranian nuclear programme as an existential threat, and is widely suspected to have carried out targeted assassinations of important Iranian figures, including nuclear scientists, and cyber attacks against the country.

The Quds Force supports the Shiite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah militarily and financially, and has used it to carry out attacks against Israeli and US interests in the region. Iran has also been strongly critical of Israeli actions against the Palestinians, and Hezbollah fighters have engaged the Israel Defence Forces on the Lebanon-Israel border ever since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.

What kind of presence does the Quds Force have in Syria?

When the Syrian civil war broke out in the early 2010s, the Quds Force initially established a presence in the country in order to “protect Shiite shrines”, according to the CFR.

However, they went on to intervene actively in the war, fighting against ISIS on the side of Syrian government forces, and working with the Russians to keep President Bashar al-Assad in power in the face of strong US opposition to his regime. Damascus and Tehran are close strategic allies.

The Quds Force has a very significant presence in Syria, and Iran is said to operate dozens of military bases around the country. Hezbollah said on Tuesday that General Zahedi played a crucial role in helping “develop and advance the work” of the group in Lebanon, the AP reported. A Hezbollah member was also killed in the strike, the report said.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani speaks during an event to commemorate the people who were killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in Syria’s capital Damascus, at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 3, 2024. (REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir)

According to a report in The Guardian, Zahedi “commanded units in Lebanon and Syria and was most likely a critical figure in Tehran’s relationship with Hezbollah and Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad”.

Arab News quoted a US Department of the Treasury statement from August 3, 2010, saying that Zahedi “also acted as a liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services and is reportedly charged with guaranteeing weapons shipments to Hezbollah.”

Other officers killed in the strike included the head of the Palestinian Division of the Quds Force in Beirut, commander of IRGC operations in Yemen, and a leader who oversaw Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

Has the Quds Force leadership been targeted earlier?

On January 3, 2020, US forces killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRCG and head of the Quds Force, in a drone strike at the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.

Zahedi was also a “contemporary and close friend” of Soleimani, according to Arab News. The two enrolled in the IRGC in their early twenties and rose to prominence during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88). “It was Soleimani who appointed Zahedi commander of the Quds Force Lebanon Corps in 1998, a position he held until 2002, and to which he was reappointed in 2008,” it added.

The US Department of Defense said the 2020 action was a “decisive step” to protect US personnel abroad, adding that Soleimani was “actively developing” plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq. During the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 too, the US establishment accused the Quds Forces of attacking US military personnel.

Iran vowed retaliation in 2020, and on January 8 it launched missile attacks on US-led forces in Iraq. No casualties were reported.