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Iran
Focus
 London, Feb. 27 – Iran Focus has obtained a
list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Iran’s
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The names and details of the training centres were
provided by a defector from the IRGC, who has recently left Iran and now
lives in hiding in a neighbouring country. Iran
Focus agreed to keep his identity secret for obvious security reasons.
The former IRGC officer said the camps and the training centres
were under the control of the IRGC’s elite Qods Force, the extra-territorial arm of the
Revolutionary Guards.
“The Qods Force has an extensive network that uses
the facilities of Iranian embassies or cultural and economic missions or a
number of religious institutions such as the Islamic Communications and
Culture Organisation to recruit radical Islamists
in Muslim countries or among the Muslims living in the West. After going
through preliminary training and security checks in those countries, the
recruits are then sent to Iran via third countries and end up in one of the Qods Force training camps”, the officer said.
The Imam Ali Garrison has been a long-time training ground for foreign
terrorist operatives. Presently, some 50 Islamists from neighbouring
Arab countries are receiving training there in five groups of 10, the officer
said.
 “Iraq followed
by the Palestinian territories have become the focal
point of the Qods Force’s activities. Many of the
foreign recruits in these camps now come from these two areas, but others
come from a wide range of countries, including the Arab states of the Persian
Gulf, North Africa and south-east Asia”, he said. “In most camps, the Sunnis
outnumber the Shiites”.
“The scale and breadth of Qods Force operations in Iraq are far beyond what we did even during
the war with Saddam”, the officer said, referring to the IRGC’s
extensive activities in Iraq
during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. “Vast areas of Iraq are
under the virtual control of the Qods Force through
its Iraqi surrogates. It uses a vast array of charities, companies and other
fronts to conduct its activities across Iraq”.
“We would send our officers into Iraq to operate for months under
the cover of a construction company”, he said. “Kawthar
Company operated in Najaf last year to carry out
construction work in the area around Imam Ali Shrine, but it was in fact a
front company for the Qods Force. Qods officers, disguised as
company employees, established contacts with Iraqi operatives and organised underground cells in southern Iraq”.
The officer said Qods Force officers also used the Iranian Red Crescent
and the state-run television and radio corporation as fronts for their
operations in Iraq.
A special branch inside Iran’s
Foreign Ministry is responsible for assisting the Qods
Force in bringing in foreign recruits. The recruits first travel to third
countries where they are given new passports by Iranian agents to facilitate
their entry into Iran.
Upon finishing their training course, the new agents leave Iran for
third countries from where they use their genuine passports to return to
their countries of origin or where missions are planned.
The list of the bases used for training terrorists identified for Iran Focus
are as follows:
1) Imam Ali Training Garrison, Tajrish Square,
Tehran,
2) Bahonar Garrison, Chalous
Street, close to the dam of Karaj,
3) Qom’s Ali-Abad Garrison, Tehran-Qom highway,
4) Mostafa Khomeini Garrison, Eshrat-Abad
district, Tehran,
5) Crate Camp Garrison, 40 kilometres from the Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
6) Fateh Qani-Hosseini
Garrison, between Tehran and Qom
7) Qayour Asli Garrison,
30 kilometres from Ahwaz-Khorramshahr
highway,
8) Abouzar Garrison, Qaleh-Shahin
district, Ahwaz, Khuzestan province
9) Hezbollah Garrison, Varamin, east of Tehran
10) Eezeh Training Garrison
11) Amir-ol-Momenin Garrison, Ban-Roushan, Ilam province
12) Kothar Training Garrison, Dezful
Street, Shoushtar, Khuzestan province
13) Imam Sadeq Garrison, Qom
14) Lavizan Training Centre, north-east Tehran
15) Abyek Training Centre, west of Tehran
16) Dervish Training Centre, 18 kilometres from the
Ahwaz-Mahshar highway,
17) Qazanchi Training Centre, Ravansar-Kermanshah-Kamyaran
tri-junction,
18) Beit-ol-Moqaddas University, Qom
19) Navab Safavi School, Ahwaz
20) Nahavand Training Centre, 45 kilometres from Nahavand,
western Iran
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