Qods Force Special Ops Commander Killed in Iraq
By OIAC
Mehdi Norouzi was also a commander of the suppressive plain-clothes agents who led the crackdown of the 2009 popular uprisings in Iran
In recent days, state-affiliated media and websites in Iran have reported that a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mehdi Norouzi, was killed in action on Saturday, January 10, 2015, in Samarra, Iraq.
On Tuesday, the regime’s media outlets and newspapers reported that his body was taken to Tehran and was scheduled for burial in Kermanshah on Wednesday.
In its January 13 edition, the daily Vatan-e Emrouz profiled Norouzi as a senior ranking officer, implying that he reported to Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi, one of the most senior officers of the Qods Force. The daily wrote: “After the death of martyr Brig. Gen. Seyyed Hamid Taqavi, this time Mehdi Norouzi Bahari, one of the brave souls of the revolutionary front, was privileged with martyrdom while defending Samarra’s holy sites.”
Who is Mehdi Norouzi?
(why was his body taken to Tehran so that regime officials could say farewell?)
His full name was Bijan Mehdi Norouzi Bahari (aka Mehdi Norouzi). He was born in Kermanshah, and the regime has revealed his official title as a “member of the Command Council of the Bassij Garrison of Shahid Teymourian in Kermanshah.”
Praised by the regime as the “lion of Samarra,” Norouzi was reportedly shot by ISIS in the Iraqi city of Samarra.
The daily Vatan-e Emrouz introduces him as the commander of the special operations (of the Qods Force) in Samarra. He was sent to Iraq by the Qods Force after the emergence of ISIS.
Norouzi was also a commander of Khamenei’s team of bodyguards during the latter’s travels in Iran. Pictures exposing his role in suppressing the popular uprisings of 2009 in Iran reveal that he was one of the protection squad commanders when Khamenei visited Kurdistan prior to the 2009 uprisings.
During the 2009 nationwide protests, Norouzi was one of the commanders of plain-clothes agents who suppressed the protests. He was one of the commanders in charge of organizing and leading Lebanese Hezbollah forces tasked with crushing the popular uprisings in 2009. At the time, he introduced himself as “Hossein Monayyef Ashmar,” and commanded Lebanese Hezbollah forces on the ground. His identity and pseudonym were exposed at that time.
On December 27, 2009 (known as the Ashura day protests), he commanded plain-clothes agents who committed heinous crimes against protestors at Pol-e Kalej in Tehran.
After the escalation of popular protests in Syria, in its attempts to save Bashar Assad, the Qods Force tried to leverage its experiences in suppressing popular protests in Iran in 2009 to conduct terrorist activities in Syria. The Qods Force sent Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, who commanded Tehran’s IRGC forces that played a central role in suppressing the 2009 uprisings, to Syria. In addition to Hamedani, it also enlisted plain-clothes agents who had committed unspeakable crimes against protestors in Iran. A number of these forces, including Mehdi Norouzi, who had played a pivotal role in commanding plain-clothes agents, were later sent to Syria. Norouzi became a commander of Qods Force special operations units in Syria, who fought against the Syrian people and their resistance forces.
After the fall of Mosul and Tikrit in Iraq, which dealt a heavy blow against the Iranian regime in Iraq, Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani, deployed Qods commanders and forces from Iran into Iraq. He also brought in a number of his commanders from Syria, one of whom was Norouzi, who was acting as a special operations commander.
