Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has leapt into the Syrian battle arena, undertaking to transform Assad’s loyal Alawite Shabbiha militia into a new corps, retrained and reorganized on the model of the elite Al Qods Brigades. More than 2,200 Iranian military instructors have so far been airlifted into Syria along with up-to-date weapons for the newly trained militiamen. At the project's end, Bashar Assad – if he survives that long – will have a new highly-trained force of 50-60,000 elite troops, nucleus of a Syrian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has placed the Revolutionary Guards on a war footing fearing an attack by the West and Israel on Iran's nuclear sites, the London Telegraph reports Dec. 6. They have redistributed the Shahab missiles to secret sites ready to launch retaliatory strikes; Guards units are scattered to preset defense lines and air force "rapid reaction units" are ready to respond to enemy air attack. By capturing the top-secret US RQ-170 spy drone, Iran gains a military edge before any overt strike begins.

Exhaustive investigations into the deadly explosion of the Sejil-2 ballistic missile at the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Alghadir base last Saturday, Nov. 12  point increasingly to a technical fault caused by the computer system controlling the missile and not the missile itself. The head of Iran's ballistic missile program Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam was among the 36 officers killed in the blast. debkafile: The IRGC is investigating the possible Stuxnet virus infection of this computer system as the cause of the explosion.

The first Western spy satellite images two days after the explosions at the Alghadir Revolutionary Guards base 45 km west of Tehran further deepen the mystery of their cause. The latest  DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday proposes some intriguing answers. In seconds, the vast 52-square kilometer (20 sq. mile) area around the base was laid waste, as though ravaged by a nuclear blast – except for the absence of radioactivity. The Guards have placed the area off-limits and posted special operations units to bar entry.

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Brig. Hassan Moghadam, head of Revolutionary Guards missile development and sections of Iran's nuclear program, was killed in the explosions that hit two IRGC bases 46 kilometers west of Tehran Saturday, Nov. 12. The official fatality figure was 32.  The bases are located in Malard, a town in the Shahryar district. The Moadarres facility was the first to be hit, while the second and bigger blast occurred at Amir-al-Mo'menin where ambulances were denied entry due to its sensitivity.

For the first time in the anti-Assad uprising, elements of Syria's popular protest movement are turning to armed revolt on lines similar to those marking the Libyan conflict, after discovering the regime's military crackdown is masterminded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers. Wednesday, April 27, armed civilians were seen for the first time, some carrying anti-tank weapons, in the Daraa district of the South and Banias and Jableh on the coast.  Washington is preparing new sanctions against Damascus.

The Special United Nations Tribunal (STL) for fixing responsibility for the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in February 2005 is now pointing the finger of suspicion not only at nine high-ranking Hizballah officials but also their overlords, members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief Gen. Mohamed Ali Jafari, who rarely leaves his country, paid a secret visit to Damascus a few hours before Tehran launched the Bushehr nuclear reactor Saturday, Aug. 21. With him were top Al Qods Brigades commanders in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. They conferred with Bashar Assad on roles for Syria and Hizballah in an Iranian reprisal for a US or Israel attack - or a "pre-emptive strike" against Israel.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's Iranian sources reveal that high-ranking Revolutionary Guards generals are engaged in intense turf wars to see which sections of Iran's WMD programs under their command reach the finishing line first.
Our latest issue out last Friday elaborated on the state of those programs. It also offered an up-to-the-minute guide to the war preparations afoot on Israel's explosive northern borders.

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