Iran Arms Basij Volunteers With Man-Portable Air Defense Systems As It Mobilizes One Million (Photos)

Illustrative image. (Tasnim News Agency)

Iran has armed Basij volunteers with advanced man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), according to photos that emerged on social networks on March 26.

The Basij, completely made up of volunteers, is one of the five branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The paramilitary force is reported to have more than 25 million reservists, with at least 600,000 available for immediate call-up.

Since the start of the American-Israeli war on Iran, multiple headquarters, positions and even checkpoints of the Basij have been struck. Nevertheless, it has been reported that the force broke into tens of thousands of cells and spread all over the Islamic Republic.

The MANPADS distributed to Basij volunteers — at least the ones seen in the latest photos — have been identified as the Misagh-3, an Iranian copy of the Chinese QW-18.

The missile, which is equipped with a dual-band passive infrared seeker, has an engagement range of five kilometers with a flight ceiling of up to four kilometers.

It is believed that the American fighter jet that was hit over the port city of Chabahar in the southern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan on March 25 — reportedly an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet — was targeted with a Misagh-3, possibly even fired by a cell of the Basij.

A report by CNN from March 25 also revealed that Iran has deployed MANPADs on Kharg Island, its most critical maritime oil export hub.

The U.S. has been weighing using troops to seize the tiny island in the northeastern Persian Gulf as leverage over the Iranians to coerce them to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The deployment of MANPADS like Misagh-3 would make an assault on the island extremely risky, especially for helicopters attempting to land troops or even fighter jets providing close air support.

Arming Basij volunteers with advanced weapons like MANPADS indicate that Iran is taking the threat of a U.S. ground operation in Kharg, or elsewhere, very seriously, and preparing to fight with full force.

In fact, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency revealed on March 26 that more than a million troops have been already mobilized for a ground battle. A military source also told the agency that there has been a “massive” influx of requests from Iranian youth towards the Basij, the IRGC and the regular military.

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