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Thursday, 02 February 2006 |
 The Badr Organization is the largest organization affiliated with the IRGC Qods Force in Iraq. The Badr Org. members are regarded as the Qods Force personnel and despite the fact that they have been in Iraq for the past three years, they still receive their salaries from Iran. The Badr Org. General Secretary Abu Hassan Al-Ameri(Hadi Al-Amaeri) is directly connected to the Qods Force commander Brig. Gen. Ghassem Sulleimani and receives his orders from him. The high ranking authorities in the Badr Org. are appointed or dismissed according to the Qods Force's instructions. The organization's central office is located in Al-Jaderieh District in Baghdad.
History
Upon Khomeini's order, the SCIRI was founded in Tehran in November 1982 and the Iranian media gave it coverage while the Iran-Iraq war was still going on. In 1984, the SCIRI members who had volunteered to go to war against Iraq were organized by the IRGC in the form of a battalion which took part in Operation Kheibar under the IRGC command. Once the operation was over, an IRGC member called Daghayeghi – a native of the town of Behbahan in the Iranian Khuzestan Province – took control of the SCIRI forces and reorganized them in the form of a brigade and called it the 9th. Badr Brigade. The first commander of the newly formed brigade was Daghayeghi himself who was later killed in the Operation Karbala 5 in the Iran-Iraq war.
In 1985, the 9th.Badr Brigade was connected to the Ramazan Base (the IRGC Guerilla Warfare Staff) and under the command of the IRGC advanced bases, took part in the fighting against Iraq in the middle, western and southern fronts.
The 9th.Badr Brigade was reorganized in the form of a division in 1987 and was called the 9th.Badr Division. It continued performing its activities under the guise of Iraq opposition under the command of the Ramazan Base in the form of guerilla warfare inside Iraq.
Once more, the 9th.Badr Division underwent reorganization in September 1991 and was given the name of the Badr Corps. It was directly connected to the Qods Force intelligence section and from that date until the fall of the previous regime in Iraq, it has been employed by the Qods Force as an extraterritorial force.
Badr forces enter Iraq
When the U.S. war on Iraq became imminent, the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) held a session on December 22, 2001 attended by Khamenei and concluded that the only way to secure Tehran's interests is to gain a share in Iraq's future government through the SCIRI and other Iraqi groups in Iran. The SNSC once more held a session in Khamenei's house on September 9, 2002 and concluded that the U.S. war on Iraq was certain and the result of the war would be a long term U.S. presence in Iraq. Therefore, an active policy in the regional and international scenes should be adopted to fend off the short term and long term dangers from Iran. The council discussed the "secret diplomacy with the Iraqi opposition" and approved that "Iran's most powerful apparatus in the Iraqi issue which could secure Iran's interests in the current situation, in a probable attack and even in Iraq's future policy, is to have relations with the Iraqi opposition, especially the SCIRI and the Badr Org., and keep them under continuous influence."
When the U.S. war on Iraq started, based upon a scheme prepared by Tehran, the Badr forces crossed the border and entered Iraq along three axes, each axis under the control of the following commanders:
Abu Hassan Al-Amaeri, the Badr Corps commander, the central axis
Abu Leqaa, the Badr Corps operation commander, the northern axis
Abu Ali Al-Basri, the former Badr Corps commander, the southern axis
Imam Ali Division and Mustafa Brigade entered Iraq through the northern axis; the central axis facilitated for Hazrat Rassoul Division to cross the border and Imam Hussein and Heydar Karrar Divisions traveled along the southern axis to enter Iraq.
* Imam Ali Division advanced to the border region of Marivan on the Iranian side and stationed there until the outbreak of the war. When the war started on March 20, 2003, the division entered the Iraqi territory and stopped in Darbandi Khan.
* Imam Hussein Division advanced along Khorramshar route and after crossing the border reached Basra City.
* Heydar Karrar Division entered Iraq through Howeizeh region and headed for the city of Al-Amareh.
* Hazrat Rassoul Division traveled along Mehran route and after crossing the border reached the cities of Kut and Nasserieh.
* Mustafa Brigade entered Iraq through northern regions, the brigade command stationed in Baquba and the forces scattered in the towns of Diyala Province.
On their arrivals in the Iraqi cities, the Badr Corps forces immediately occupied the government offices and set up their own offices and started recruiting new members. Simultaneously, the Badr forces began collecting arms and ammunitions in various cities and hiding them in numerous arms dumps.
Changing the organization and founding Badr Organization
Several months later and following the U.S. demand to disarm the militia men under Abdul Aziz Hakim's command, he visited Iran from Oct. 4 to 11, 2003. He met with the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the previous parliament speaker Karroubi, former president Khatami, head of the Legislature Hashemi Shahroudi, the ex-president Rafsanjani, former Minister of Intelligence Younessi, former Interior Minister Mousawi Laari, Brig. Gen. Pasdar Reza Seifollahi (Chief of Nasr Command Staff) and Brig. Gen. Pasdar Ghassem Sulleimani (commander of the Qods Force).
During the same period, Hakim attended the Qods Force closed meetings and discussed the situation and the organization of the Badr Corps with the Qods Force officials. It was decided that some changes should be made in the Badr Corps organization in Iraq. After returning to Iraq on Oct. 17, Hakim announced that there has been a series of changes in the military branch of the SCIRI i.e. the name of Badr Corps has been changed to "the Badr Organization for Developments". Therefore, he dissolved the Badr Corps military units and incorporated them with the provinces' organizations.
The SCIRI held a general congress in Najaf consisting of more than 700 of its members to discuss how to execute the plan. In his speech in the final part of the congress, Abdul Aziz Hakim said that it had been decided to turn the Badr Corps into a non-military organization and the reason for that was to reduce the U.S. sensitivity on the Badr Corps as a military body and pretend that it had no more military activities. In this case, pursuing, arresting and disarming the Badr Corps members would have been meaningless and it would have stopped further pressure and restrictions on the Badr Corps. Following the decision, the Badr forces were reorganized according to the provinces and the personnel received new Badr Organization ID cards. It is worthwhile knowing that the ID file numbers are the same numbers in the Qods Force personnel list.
Organizational chart
Badr Organization in provinces
The Badr Corps used to be organized in the form of (military) divisions. But after the above decision, the divisions changed their names to the Badr Organization in provinces.
The Badr organization in each province is arranged in three levels, i.e. province, city and town. The organization in each level consists of 3 main parts which includes the security force, the administrative support and the main HQ. Moreover, it was decided that various organizations like the Youth Institute ( مؤسسة الشباب ) and the Ansar Al-Badr Organization ( أنصار البدر ) should be set up to attract different social classes.
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