Basij Organization Enters Cyber Operations

The Basij, initially paramilitary volunteers, came to prominence during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) as it organized groups of teens to sweep minefields by running across them, with plastic keys to paradise around their necks. With the end of the war the Iranian government sought to institutionalize the Basij, eventually rolling it into the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2007.

The Basij, however, has always worked as a crack unit, whether in uniform or in civilian clothes, concentrating on countering those who it believes pose internal threats to Ayatollah Khomeini’s and Ayatollah Khamenei’s revolutionary ideals. With the outbreak of civil war in Syria, as well as unrest in Iraq, the Basij has consciously moved to replicate its model in these countries in order to recruit and indoctrinate a younger generation sympathetic to Iran’s ideology and aims.

According to the remarks of Commander of Basij Forces General Ali Fazli, excerpted here, it seems that expansion into cyber space and cyber activities will be an important part of this new international Basij strategy. His hints that the Basij will not be satisfied with media (and presumably social media) capabilities and his mention of the Basij’s cyber ambitions after discussing areas such as Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, in which Iran alleges American aggression, suggest that the Basij aims not only to develop, but also to deploy or export cyber capabilities to its proxies fighting elsewhere in the Middle East.