How Has Islamic Republic of Iran Responded to Terrorist Attacks Since 1979 Revolution?

Since Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, the country has been targeted by terrorist attacks from terrorist groups and states, but has rarely left an attack without response.

Although Western countries, especially the United States, and Israel have always labeled Iran as a sponsor of terrorism, the history of terrorist attacks against the Islamic Republic in its four and a half years of existence tells a different story. Only in the last week, one Iranian general commander in Syria and more than a hundred innocent Iranian people inside Iran were killed in separate terrorist attacks.

During the rocket attacks on Monday, December 28, one of the senior commanders of the Quds Force of the IRGC of Iran was killed. According to Iranian media, Seyed Razi Mousavi, who was described as one of the “greatest and most prominent” commanders of IRGC Quds Force by the state news agency IRNA, died during the attack. In a statement released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps to confirm Razi’s death, he was announced as “responsible for supporting the resistance front in Syria”.

Razi was also one of Qassim Soleimani’s comrades and pictures of these two commanders of the IRGC Quds Force have been published next to each other following his assassination Monday morning.

Al-Mayadeen news agency reported this Wednesday that in recent years, Seyyed Razi had been targeted several times but terrorist operations against him never bear fruit.

In yet another terrorist attack less than a week later, two explosions in the fourth anniversary ceremony of Iranian General Qassim Soleimani in Kerman left more than a hundred dead. Iranian authorities say that the explosions had terroristic nature and the Deputy of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi blamed Israeli agents for the explosions.  Latest reports by the head of the Kerman emergency department says that death tool has reached to 103 and the number of injured to 211 people.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said most of the victims died in the second explosion and that authorities would react “quickly and forcefully” to the bombings.
“Our police forces are vigilant and will bring those who committed this crime to justice,” he said on state television. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also condemned the blasts.

“Undoubtedly, the perpetrators…of this cowardly act will soon be identified and punished for their heinous act by the capable security and law enforcement forces,” Raisi said in a statement Monday evening, adding that “the enemies of the nation should know that such actions can never disrupt the solid determination of the Iranian nation.”

How Iran has responded to terrorist attacks so far?

Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution back in 1979, Iran has been targeted countless times by terrorists from inside and outside its borders. But never has even one act of terror against Iran been without response. Undoubtedly, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, which Iran calls it the Organization of the Hypocrites, has played the biggest role in terrorist operations in Iran and has killed some of the most prominent figures of the revolution. An organization with a Marxist tendency that fought against the shah’s regime before the revolution, but diverted from Islamic values after the revolution and turned into the biggest killing machine of Iranian people for some years.

But in the final direct battle between Irana and the so-called Organization of the Hypocrites, Iran could successfully raze the organization to the ground in the ‘Mersad Operation’. People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran is now an outcast group based mostly in Albania.

The terrorist group of “Jundallah”, which Iran calls it as “Jandalshaitan”, is another terrorist group that conducted several acts of terror in Iran and killed many Iranians. Led by Abdul Malik Rigi, who had the support of Israeli intelligence agencies, the group mainly operated in the east of the country, especially in Sistan and Baluchistan province. The group carried out at least 24 terrorist operations in Chabahar, Zahedan and other cities of the region from 2004 to 2009, which led to the killing of at least 210 people.

But on 23 February 2010, when Rigi was aboard a flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and the plane was crossing the Persian Gulf, Iranian fighter jets intercepted it.

The Iranian jets ordered the pilot to land in Iranian territory and when the plane landed at Bandar Abbas International Airport, Iranian forces identified Rigi and arrested him. After his arrest, Iranian TV showed Rigi, with hands tied, being escorted by four masked Iranian commandos. He was sentenced to death and hanged.

The US terrorist act against Iran, how did Iran respond?

The United States, which since September 11 tragedy, has introduced itself as a country to fight in the front line against terrorism, has also committed acts of terror against Iran.

In one of the last cases of such terrorist attacks, Iranian General Qassim Soleimani was assassinated on 3 January 2020 around 1:00 a.m. local time by a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport. Following the attack the then-US President Donald Trump took responsibility for the move,

On 7 January 2020, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran announced that it had drafted a 13 revenge scenarios document. The next day, the Iranian military responded to Soleimani’s death by launching ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq, the first of such attacks against a US base in the region ever. The US claimed that the attacks didn’t kill any US soldiers but Iranian officials dismissed the clam and noted many American troops lost their lives in the missile attacks.

Iran’s response to Israel’s terrorist attacks

Along with terrorist groups and the United State, Israel has also carried out many terrorist acts against Iranians, mostly targeting Iran’s nuclear figures. Killing of four Iranian nuclear scientists (Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan) between 2010 and 2012, as well as assassinating Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi, another Iranian nuclear scientist on November 27, 2020, are among the most notable acts of terror by Israel against Iran.

According to international law, the Islamic Republic of Iran has the legal right to take countermeasures, and as stated by various Iranian authorities, this action will be taken at the appropriate time and in a proportionate and appropriate manner.

From the words of Iranian leaders can be concluded that when it comes to Israel, Iran has no hurry to respond and prefers to restore to strategic patience to find the right time and the right place to take revenge.

Since Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in late 2022, the Israeli government has faced several internal and external challenges that seem to stay with Israel for years. The last shock to Tel Aviv was the attack by Hamas on October 7 that left more than 1200 Israelis killed.

Whether Iran was behind the attack as an act of revenge for Israel’s terrorist actions in Iran is still not clear. But what is crystal clear is that in the past 45 years, the Islamic Republic has never left a terrorist attack without a proper response. Maybe that’s why the Guardian wrote hours after the Kerman explosions that “it is still unclear who is responsible for the double bombing of a crowd in the south-eastern Iranian city of Kerman, but whoever is behind the outrage is clearly willing to risk igniting a regional war.”