Soldier Kills Officer, Civilian Near Tehran; Dies In Police Pursuit
A conscript soldier turned into an assailant in a town near Tehran killing a law enforcement officer and a civilian before being killed in a police pursuit.
A conscript soldier turned into an assailant in a town near Tehran killing a law enforcement officer and a civilian before being killed in a police pursuit.
According to the Public Relations Office of the Alborz Province Police Command, the soldier, serving in the rescue unit, opened fire on a fellow unit member for reasons yet unknown, killing him. Subsequently, he proceeded to shoot and kill another civilian, hijacking his vehicle in the process.
IRNA reported that “law enforcement ordered the soldier to halt, but he ignored the commands, prompting officers to open fire. In the ensuing chaos, the soldier's vehicle overturned, leading to his death.”
The Alborz Police Command stated that the cause of the incident remains unclear and is currently under investigation.
The event follows a similar incident on February 1, when a soldier and an employee of the Pakdasht police station, east of Tehran were mistakenly killed in an “accidental shooting”.
The incident sheds light on the persistent issue of suicide and violence among soldiers in Iran, with numerous cases reported over the years. While exact statistics on soldier suicides are unavailable, media and social activists in Iran have raised concerns about the rising trend.
In a report two years ago, Shargh newspaper highlighted that besides actual suicides, around 15 percent of soldiers have suicidal thoughts, reflecting a troubling reality.
Compulsory military service in Iran, spanning nearly a century, adds to the complexity of the situation. An estimated three million soldiers are currently considered fugitives from service, with over 317,000 conscripts entering service last year alone.
Nilforoushan told Etemad Online website in Tehran this week that the enemies are aware of IRGC's policy, which appears different from Revolutionary Guard’s declared strategy about its retaliatory measures. Chief Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari announced in 2016 that IRGC’s retaliation policy was not to react immediately, but act at a time and place of its choosing.
That was part of its asymmetrical warfare doctrine which often brought the Guards under criticism for "inaction" against attacks on their forces particularly in Syria.
The United States has launched precision strikes in the past few weeks against IRGC-linked bases in Syria and Iraq, as Israel has targeted senior officers based in Syria.
Nilforoushan now says that no attack on Iran's interests will remain unanswered, adding that Iran's response will come "on the spot" exactly where the attacks have taken place. This comes while since the killing of IRGC Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020, IRGC has been criticized both in Iran and abroad for failing to properly respond.
Nilforoushan claimed that during the past 45 years, the IRGC has been striving to create some sort of balance with its enemies in terms of combat operations, influence and image building. He reiterated that IRGC's arch enemy during this period was the United States.
He boasted that unlike the pre-1979 era, when Iran was dependent on the United States, during the past 45 years, the Islamic Republic has become the biggest missile power in West Asia. Nilforoushan further claimed that the region's geopolitics has effectively changed as Iran became a regional power. He boasted that Iran, China and Russia were the world's strongest powers while US power has been diminishing.
The senior IRGC officer further claimed that the United States is not likely to remain a big power in the future, insisting that the most the US can do is to prevent its own downfall.
In the wake of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, some Iranian hardliners have boasted about Iran's increased military strength. However, simultaneously, they have begun retracting previous assertions regarding Iran's influence over proxy groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. Recently, Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahid, emphasized that the United States must acknowledge its waning ability to meddle in the internal affairs of other nations.
Vahidi made the statement while US attacks on pro-Iranian militia positions in Iraq, Syria and Yemen were widely welcomed both in the region and in the international community as a measure in the interest of security of the region and international commercial navigation.
Meanwhile, former IRGC Commander Mohsen Rezaei has said the United States has come to the conclusion that it can restore security in the region only with the cooperation of the Islamic Republic, which has stayed out of direct involvement in the current conflict.
Rezaei also denied Iran's influence among its proxy groups in the region and said Iran was not involved in their attacks on US bases in the region. He claimed that Iran's influence is mainly about deterring attacks on the Islamic Republic.
In his interview, Nilforoushan emphasized that Israel has recognized the unlikelihood of a direct military clash between Iran and the United States. He asserted that Israel has also acknowledged its incapacity for a military showdown with the Islamic Republic and has opted to engage Iran solely in the ambiguous realms between other conflicts.
Furthermore, Nilforoushan emphasized the imperative for Iran to safeguard its intelligence assets and prevent their compromise to external entities. However, he overlooked the numerous Israeli assaults on Iranian installations in Syria and Israel's evident intelligence advantage concerning Iran's nuclear endeavors.
Citing Israeli and British officials, the report said that IRGC agents approach British Muslims visiting holy Shia sites in Iran and Iraq to recruit them for espionage purposes.
“They are told to return to the UK and gather information on prominent British Jews or targets such as synagogues,” as well as regime opponents the report added.
Kasra Aarabi, of the United Against Nuclear Iran advocacy group, remarked that the IRGC has focused on employing British Muslims mostly originating from Lebanon, Iraq and Pakistan because UK-based Iranians are usually secular and anti-regime and thus, will not cooperate with Tehran’s malign schemes.
Aarabi referred to annual Arbaeen religious mass gathering in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala as an occasion in which the IRGC recruiters are very active as the event gathers annually up to 20 million Shia pilgrims from around the world. Approximately 400,000 Shia Muslims live in the UK.
Following Hamas’ October 7 onslaught, Israel has repeatedly warned the UK against the potential attacks by the Iranian regime and its proxies on British soil, an Israeli official announced. Back in October, it was also reported that Iran’s agents were stirring up unrest in the UK through Gaza protests.
Daily Mail added that according to experts, some Iranians who have entered the UK apparently on student visas are in fact the regime’s spies.
“We do not know the scale of Iranian agents inside Europe and the UK, but all it takes is for one to slip through the net,” Daily Mail quoted an unnamed source as saying.
Meanwhile, a British government official confirmed that the IRGC has resorted to UK-based organized criminal networks when it intended to murder or kidnap its targets on British territory. According to Daily Mail, the IRGC has adopted such a policy as it is very hard for Iranian spies to operate freely in the UK.
In an interview with Iran International TV, political analyst Damoun Mohammadi called on European states to adopt a tougher stance with regard to Tehran’s conspiracies against Iranian dissidents abroad, warning that Europe’s inaction can result in the success of the regime’s plots to intimidate its opponents.
According to the analyst, the Islamic Republic has been targeting its opponents in European countries since it came to power in 1979 but it has recently increased its malign operations as the activities of the foreign-based dissidents have expanded significantly.
UK’s ITV revealed in December 2023 that the IRGC was plotting to assassinate two Iran International television anchors in London in 2022 amid Iranian anti-government protests.
Following ITV’s report, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires. Iran must be sent “an incredibly clear message that this escalation will not be tolerated,” Cameron stressed.
Last year, Iran International temporarily relocated its television broadcast from London to Washington, DC, due to terrorist threats. The decision to suspend Iran International's broadcasting from the British capital was made after the arrest of an Austrian national named Mohammad-Hussein Dovtaev on February 13, 2023.
He was detained while filming outside the network’s premises. The Central Criminal Court of England sentenced Dovtaev to 3.5 years behind bars for attempting to collect information “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
In October 2023, Ken McCallum, the Director-General of MI5, the UK’s security service, stated that amid the war between Iran-backed Hamas and Israel, the Islamic Republic may be exploring new ways to threaten the security of Britain.
“Iran has been a rising source of concern and a rising source of task for MI5 over the last 18 months or so in particular,” McCallum then said.