What is IRGC? Elite Iranian military group in focus as US-Israeli strikes kill Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard vowed fierce retaliation on Sunday following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. State media also confirmed the death of IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour, a top security advisor to the Supreme Leader and multiple members of the Khamenei family. Iran had subsequently announced the appointment of Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi as the new commander of the IRGC.

“The heaviest offensive operations in the history of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will begin shortly toward the occupied lands and bases of the American terrorists,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on Sunday morning.

What is the IRGC?

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a powerful branch of the Iranian Armed Forces. It was established by Ruhollah Khomeini soon after the 1979 revolution and works primarily to protect the Islamic system followed within the country. Its initial members came from various paramilitary groups that had helped topple the monarchy. The IRGC has gradually emerged as a powerful military, political and economic force in Iran — with close ties to Supreme Leader Khamenei. It also controls the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force and the powerful bonyads or charitable foundations in Iran.

The US government had designated IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2019 (during the first term of President Donald Trump) — calling it “the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign”. The previous Trump administration had also accused the Revolutionary Guards of actively participating in, financing, and promoting terrorism as a tool of statecraft.

It is a powerful multi-service team that includes the elite Quds Force. This expeditionary unit within the IRGC was originally tasked with conducting operations abroad — beginning with support for Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has gradally expanded to back a wide array of non-state actors across the Middle East — including Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Taliban in Afghanistan during the 1990s.