Commander: Basij Preparing to Stage Massive Wargames in Northwestern Province

Iran’s Basij (Voluntary) Force plans to stage massive drills in the Northwestern province of West Azarbaijan on Thursday and Friday, a senior commander announced on Saturday.
“The wargames will be staged concurrently in all towns of the West Azarbaijan province on February 20 and 21,” Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for Operations in West Azarbaijan province Karim Alinejad told FNA.

“Thirty-one ‘Towards Beit al-Moqaddas’ battalions consisting of the male members of Basij force and one ‘Kosar’ battalion of female members will take part in the drills,” he added.

Alinejad said 90 other battalions, which include those comprised of clergymen and athletes as well as Ashoura and al-Zahra battalions, will also participate in the wargames for logistic and backup.

Fast reaction units of Basij Force staged massive military drills in the Northern Golestan and 8 other provinces across Iran in November.

The massive drills codenamed ‘Towards Beitol-Moqaddas’ were carried out by three operational battalions of Jundollah, Mohammad Rasulollah (PBUH) and Sarallah in Golestan province. The exercises kicked off after an order by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

“The main purpose for these wargames is to retain preparedness and increase the combat capability of the forces to confront any possible move by domestic and foreign enemies,” Lieutenant Commander of Golestan’s Neynava Corps Hossein Karimi told FNA at the time.

He reiterated that these wargames will continue throughout the year.

Fast reaction units of Basij forces have so far conducted tens of similar exercises, codenamed ‘Towards Beitol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem)’, throughout Iran to promote their power in confrontation against potential enemy threats against the country.

Basji commanders said that Basij would continue training of its units to promote the power of its forces for confrontation against enemies’ hard, semi-hard and soft threats.

In September, Commander of the IRGC Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour announced that his forces are scheduled to stage massive wargames in the second half of the current Iranian year (i.e. September 23, 2013-March 20, 2014).

“The IRGC Ground Force will stage drills by the end of the current year,” Pakpour told reporters in Tehran in September.