Fifth Revolutionary Guard Commander Dies of Heart Attack

The Iranian State media just announced that another high ranking Revolutionary Guard commander, Ahmad Sodagar, has died of a heart attack.

Sodagar, a major general, had served as the head of security and intelligence of the Guards’ Khatam–al–Anbia Base and was the chief commander of the Guards’ Prophet Mohammad Division. He had served in the Iran-Iraq war and, at the time of his death, was the head of the program “Defaeh Moghadas” or Holy Defense.

This is the fifth Guard commander to die because of a heart attack or stroke in the past month.

Those reported to have died before him were:

Vafa Ghafarian (52), a senior Guard officer, former senior manager of the Guards defense industry and electronic warfare, and the active chairman of Iran’s telecommunications. It was announced that he died due to illness, although the exact cause of death was not reported.

Abbas Mehri (52), another senior commander of the Guards, was reported by the Iranian authorities to have died in recent days of a stroke.

Ahmad Siafzadeh (55), former head of the Guards University died in recent days due to heart attack.

Mansour Torkan (50), former Guard commander and general manager of a company affiliated with the municipal office of Tehran. The cause of his death was announced as a stroke.

As reported before, a “Removal Committee” was formed recently by the order of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The agenda of this committee is based on the possibility of war with the United States. Its mission includes sabotage and assassination before the war, during the war and after the war.

The activities also include “accidental” deaths of opposition members, “suspicious deaths” of those commanders within the Iranian armed forces opposing war, and terrorizing known personalities not in line with Khamenei, then blaming it all on the regime’s enemies. Bombings in public places would again be blamed on the enemies to heighten fear among the populace and consolidate power within loyal forces.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award winning book, A Time to Betray. He is a senior Fellow with EMPact America and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA)