'Qassem Soleimani Force': What is Iran's new multi-national military force?

Iran has reportedly begun creating a unified central military force - the 'Qassem Soleimani Forces' - with a similar structure to the IRGC and comprising 10,000 extremist fighters from Iranian proxy groups, the UAE-based site Al-Ain revealed in an exclusive Monday report.

Sources from Yemeni security told Al-Ain that Tehran has been forming a new Revolutionary Guard-style force with members from different Iranian proxies.

The group is reportedly to take the name of the former head of the IRGC Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the US in January 2020 in response to an Iranian attack on the American embassy. 

The sources estimated that 20% of Qassem Soleimani Forces' members are from the Houthis in Yemen, and other fighters were recruited from pro-Iranian factions and groups in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. The new force allegedly seeks to centralize the Iranian proxies and work in all directions across the region.

Al-Ain reported that fighters in the new force "are receiving training in camps in Iraq and Iran" and that the force will become "a central military arm of the so-called Iranian 'Axis of Resistance,' in an attempt by Tehran to consolidate its presence and influence in the region, and to be able to withstand any further pressure."

Iran has not issued any official confirmation about this force.

What is known about the force?

According to Al-Ain's sources in Yemen, the force is a combination of Iranian proxy fighters. In the first phase, the force will comprise 10,000 fighters, with the aim to increase this number in the future.

Multiple high-level security sources in Yemen told Al-Ain that the Houthi militias recently transferred 1,300 of their most extremist ideological fighters to the new force in Iran. This is from a total of 2,000 Houthi fighters that the group plans on sending to form part of the structure and building of the new military force, the sources said. Tehran will supervise the establishment with the help of Hezbollah.

The sources confirmed that all of the transferred Houthi fighters had graduated from “the main sectarian religious  centers affiliated with the Houthi militias, which impose strict mechanisms to brainwash the participants and train them as elites, especially the centers spread throughout their home stronghold, Saada.”

How did they leave Yemen?

Following questions about how the remaining 700 fighters would reach Iran, sources told Al-Ain that the Houthi fighters left Yemen by air and sea, some through smuggling operations.

The sources continued that some fighters arrived “through maritime smuggling operations to Somalia and Sudan via fishing boats designated for this mission, and from Sudan, they are transported to Iran in different ways."

"Other groups were also airlifted to a number of countries via Yemenia flights after they obtained passports remotely from the legitimate areas, especially the Mahra Governorate, in the far east of the country."

The Houthi militia members then moved to African countries before reaching their final location in either Iraq or Iran.

Their movements were coordinated by a specialized security unit for Iran and Hezbollah, which continues to manage the transfer of large groups of Houthi soldiers, numbering 1,300 members last week, according to Al-Ain.

"The security network of Iran and Hezbollah is providing all the requirements to transport these groups of Houthi militia members and facilitating procedures for them at airports and in the foreign countries that have been chosen as halfway points for the transfer of these extremists to Iraq and Iran," one source explained.

The relevance of Houthi involvement 

Given the Houthis constitute the largest percentage of fighters in the new unified force, the Yemeni groups' influence in the region will be strengthened, experts told Al-Ain.  

According to Al-Ain, there has been speculation about whether Hussein Abdullah Mastour al-Shaabal, the Houthi leader who was killed in Iraq on August 4, was a member of Qassem Soleimani brigades.

Al-Shaabal, who held the rank of Brigadier General, was killed in US raids on Kataib Hezbollah sites in Iraq last week, according to the Iranian reports. Security sources told Al-Ain that he was participating “in the new central force that Iran.” 

Other sources said that the General was one of the officials responsible for the groups being sent to train in specialized military camps alongside members of Hezbollah. The training is reportedly overseen by Iranian experts in fortified camps in the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, north of Babil Governorate, south of Baghdad.

According to Arab media, the US carried out strikes in Jurf al-Sakhar last week, allegedly targeting a Kataib Hezbollah base. Several fighters were said to have been killed. The Washington Insitute, a thinktank, numbered this as the 189th attack on US forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since October 2023.

The Washington Institute also said that Kataib Hezbollah is seeking a greater role in the region and may want to maximize Iraqi involvement in the upcoming Iran attack on Israel.