Quds Force

The Quds Force (Persian: نیروی قدس, romanized: niru-ye qods, lit. 'The Jerusalem Force') is one of five branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran. Considered an elite unit within the IRGC, it specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as being analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Responsible for extraterritorial operations, the Quds Force has been described as the IRGC’s de facto external affairs branch. It supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan; it has also deployed personnel in foreign conflicts such as the Syrian civil war and the Iraqi offensive against the Islamic State. The Quds Force reports directly to the supreme leader of Iran, currently Mojtaba Khamenei since 8 March 2026. After Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike in January 2020, his deputy, Esmail Qaani, replaced him. In 2019, the U.S. secretary of state designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) based on the IRGC's "continued support to and engagement in terrorist activity around the world."; this was the first time that the U.S. designated a government entity as an FTO.