{"id":2578426,"date":"2026-03-11T05:19:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/irans-irgc-is-down-but-not-out-yet\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T05:21:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:21:53","slug":"irans-irgc-is-down-but-not-out-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/irans-irgc-is-down-but-not-out-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran&#8217;s IRGC is down but not out \u2014 yet"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Firans-irgc-is-down-but-not-out-yet%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2578426&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article reports that Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been degraded by U.S. and Israeli actions but is far from neutralized. U.S. forces have reportedly hit more than 5,000 targets, with <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >officials describing ongoing<\/a>, intense strikes inside Iran. Iran\u2019s retaliatory attacks have diminished though there are occasional spurts, and tehran\u2019s choice to strike Gulf states appears aimed at pressuring regional partners to push the war to end, a tactic experts say backfired as Gulf countries have largely aligned with the U.S. and Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Before the current conflict, the IRGC was a dominant force in security and regional influence. Early strikes killed many senior leaders, including supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and it is believed Ahmad Vahidi has taken command of the IRGC. The Assembly of Experts moved to replace Khamenei with Mojtaba Khamenei, the slain leader\u2019s son, a decision viewed as strengthening IRGC influence in state affairs.<\/p>\n<p>On the political front, U.S. President Trump has publicly urged an \u201cunconditional surrender\u201d from Iran, though White House officials say that remains an vocal position rather than a stated expectation from Tehran. Iran\u2019s Ali Larijani warned Trump not to threaten Iran,signaling continued defiance.<\/p>\n<p>Casualties have been severe: seven U.S. service members have been killed (six in Kuwait, one in Saudi Arabia) and about 140 U.S. troops have been injured. The piece concludes that Iran does not appear ready to back down, despite the pressures and losses.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Iran&rsquo;s IRGC is down but not out &mdash; yet<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2528444\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran\">Iran&rsquo;s<\/a>&nbsp;Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been degraded during the American and Israeli war against it, but remains far f<\/span>rom neutralized.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. forces have hit more than 5,000 targets, according to American defense officials, though the campaign is continuing, and Secretary of War <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/pete-hegseth\">Pete Hegseth<\/a> said on Tuesday, &ldquo;Today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4487594\/switzerland-bus-fire-police-investigation\/\">At least six dead in Switzerland bus fire as police investigate possible &#8216;voluntary act&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4486551\/europe-flails-response-iran-conflict-strait-of-hormuz\/\">Europe flails in response to Iran conflict as Strait of Hormuz closure threatens energy supply<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4486663\/israel-responds-lebanon-request-talks-new-round-strikes\/\">Israel responds to Lebanon&#8217;s request for talks with new round of strikes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The number of Iran&rsquo;s retaliatory attacks has diminished over the course of the war &mdash; they&rsquo;ve targeted American assets and none in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, and&nbsp;Oman &mdash; though the U.S. has &ldquo;seen some spurts here and there,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say that we anticipated necessarily that&rsquo;s exactly how they would react,&rdquo; Hegseth said of the IRGC targeting Gulf countries. &ldquo;But we knew it, but we knew it was a possibility, and I think it was a demonstration of the desperation of that regime.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>One reason the Iranians sought to target Gulf countries, experts argue, is that the Iranians were hoping that the Gulf countries, whom they attacked, would press the United States and Israel to end the war immediately due to the threats facing their own populations. But those countries have sided with the U.S. and Israel, not Iran.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think that was an absolute strategic mistake that Iran has made,&rdquo; Spencer Faragasso, a senior fellow with the Institute for Science and International Security, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.&nbsp;&ldquo;I think it truly shifted the conversation and narrative.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The distance a missile or drone has to travel from Iran to one of the Gulf countries is much shorter than that of Israel, and Israel had largely defended itself well against two previous Iranian ballistic missile barrages prior to the 12-day war last year, which could also explain why the IRGC has put considerable effort into targeting the Gulf countries.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the start of the current conflict, the IRGC was one of the most powerful organizations in the country, playing a dominant role in both internal domestic security and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-hostage-freeing-ceasefire-plan-draws-gratitude-from-israelis\/\" title=\"...\u2019s hostage-freeing ceasefire plan draws gratitude from Israelis\">regional power projection<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the IRGC&rsquo;s senior leaders were killed in the opening strikes that also killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mohammad Pakpour, the most recent IRGC chief, was among those killed during the opening salvo, and it&rsquo;s believed that Ahmad Vahidi, who had been named deputy chief in December, has taken the reins.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Vahidi is a long-time IRGC and IRGC Quds Force officer. He was Iran&rsquo;s first Quds Force commander, and he was the IRGC deputy commander before this war started, and Israel in the U.S. killed the IRGC commander at the time, Pakpour, so he is presumably controlling the IRGC right now,&rdquo; Annika Ganzeveld, the Middle East Portfolio Manager for the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, told the&nbsp;<em>Washington Examiner<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The Assembly of Experts &mdash; Iran&rsquo;s deliberative body responsible for selecting the nation&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/xi-jinping-bonds-with-kim-jong-un-over-common-ideals-of-socialism-at-first-meeting-in-years\/\" title=\"Xi Jinping bonds with Kim Jong Un over &#039;common ideals&#039; of socialism at first meeting in years\">supreme leader &#038;mdash<\/a>; selected&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/4484850\/iran-names-mojtaba-khamenei-new-supreme-leader\/\">Mojtaba&nbsp;Khamenei<\/a>, the son of the slain leader, to succeed his father, who had been in power for more than thirty years.<\/p>\n<p>His selection as the next supreme leader is &ldquo;essentially a double down on the IRGC&rsquo;s ability to influence the state and protect it,&rdquo; Faragasso added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a major insider and supporter of the IRGC, its Qud Forces, etc. So what we&rsquo;ll likely see, more likely than not, is an expanded control of the hardliners in the iRGC and their influence in state operations.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Trump has said he wasn&rsquo;t happy with Mojtaba Khamenei&rsquo;s selection as the next supreme leader, while both U.S. and Israeli officials have warned that he or other successors could become targets.<\/p>\n<p>The question facing the American president is what victory would look like in their current conflict. Trump vowed that he would not end the war until there&rsquo;s an &ldquo;UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER&rdquo; from the Iranian regime, though White House top spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/defense\/4486498\/ukraine-prove-value-america-drone-assistance\/\">UKRAINE LOOKS TO PROVE ITS VALUE TO AMERICA WITH DRONE ASSISTANCE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It doesn&rsquo;t look like Iran is ready to back down.<\/p>\n<p>Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iran&rsquo;s National Security Council, issued a message on social media to Trump telling him, &ldquo;Iran doesn&rsquo;t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn&rsquo;t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Iranian response has been somewhat successful despite taking its own significant hits. Seven U.S. service members have been killed, six of whom were in Kuwait and one who was in Saudi Arabia, while <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/defense\/4487002\/roughly-140-americans-injured-first-10-days-iran-war\/\">140 troops have been injured<\/a> to varying degrees, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRGC battered but not defeated; 5k+ strikes ongoing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2671,"featured_media":2578427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mojtaba-Khamenei.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[32404,3823,12714,32726,3646],"class_list":["post-2578426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-geopolitics","tag-iran","tag-irgc","tag-middle-east","tag-security"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mojtaba-Khamenei.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2671"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2578426"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578430,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578426\/revisions\/2578430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2578427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2578426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2578426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2578426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}