Mohammad Boroujerdi (; 1955 – 1983) was an Iranian commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards during the Iran–Iraq War. He was also the commander of the Muslim Peshmerga and played a major role in restoring Iranian government control over the territories of Kurdistan.
Biography He was born in 1954-55 to a religious nomadic Lur Shia family in the village of Darreh Gorg, in Borujerd County, and had five other siblings who nicknamed him "Mirza". When Boroujerdi was six years old, his father Alireza unexpectedly died and his family went into poverty, after which his mother Khadijeh relocated herself and her six children to Tehran in the neighborhood called Molavi. According to his mother, at seven years old, Boroujerdi began working in a tailoring shop during the day and studied at a night school. At 14, his mother enrolled him into a Quran school. Some time later, he joined the Islamic Coalition Party. He got married in 1971 and was called up for military service a year later, although he escaped from military service to meet with Ruhollah Khomeini but was caught and arrested by SAVAK on the Iran–Iraq border in Khuzestan, and imprisoned at a SAVAK facility in Susangerd where he was hung upside down and beaten. He was released after six months and was forced to complete his military service in Tehran.
After completing his military service, he continued his anti-government activities, spending his time printing propaganda posters, and started seeking anti-government contacts. He came into contact with an associate of Mehdi Araghi and established the "Tawhidi Saff Group", an armed group intended to overthrow Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1977. The same year, he went to Lebanon to receive training in guerilla warfare from the Amal Movement, planning to wage an armed rebellion against the Pahlavi monarchy. He wanted to enter Najaf in Iraq to meet with Ruhollah Khomeini but did not go as a result of the 1975 Algiers Agreement, choosing to return to Iran instead. He later complained about the communist tendencies of Shia and Palestinian groups in Lebanon. After the 1978 Qom protest, his anti-government stance intensified, and he was later connected to the explosion of the Khansalar restaurant in Tehran, the explosion of a military bus carrying American advisors in Lavizan, the disarmament of the officers at the police headquarters in Tehran, and a series of armed attacks on SAVAK centers.
When Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran, a group of his associates, including Morteza Motahhari, Mohammad Beheshti, and Mehdi Araghi, held a meeting and entrusted two militant groups, the "Tawhidi Saff Group" and the "Fajr al-Islam", led by Boroujerdi and Araghi, with protecting Khomeini. Boroujerdi and his associates offered security to Khomeini at the Mehrabad International Airport, around Behesht-e Zahra, and at the Alavi School. He also formed a unit to protect the residence of Khomeini in Tehran. When the violent stages of the Iranian Revolution began in February 1979, Boroujerdi was connected to the capturing the Jamshidiyye military garrison and the radio and television centers from the Imperial Guard. He was shot in the leg during the conflict but saw the success of the revolution. Immediately after, he was briefly put in charge of Evin Prison, which became filled with former Pahlavi government officials. He was also one of the twelve founders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Earlier during the revolution, he merged his group, Tawhidi Saff, with several others to form the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization.Forozan, Hesam (2015), The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran: The Evolution and Roles of the Revolutionary Guards, Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World Series, vol. 38, Routledge, p. 107Alfoneh, Ali (2013), Iran Unveiled: How the Revolutionary Guards Is Transforming Iran from Theocracy into Military Dictatorship, AEI Press, pp. 8–10.
He was put in charge of the Vali-ye Asr military garrison. As the conflict intensified with the Kurdish rebel groups such as KDPI, Komala, Feda'iyan, or Peykar, Boroujerdi was aged 25 when he was sent to Kermanshah and from there to Sanandaj. He sought to win the support of the Kurdish locals, who he viewed as simple people exploited by the rebel groups, and he was known for respecting the people of Kurdistan, who also had relatively good relations with him. Boroujerdi was nicknamed the "Lion of Lorestan". He also formulated the plan to establish the Muslim Peshmerga in order to recruit local Kurds and diminish rebel influence, and presented it to the Iranian government, which approved it and assigned him as the commander. With the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War, he went to Sarpol-e Zahab following an offensive by Iraqi forces in the region and almost died several times, with his hand severely injured, but consolidated control over the city. Despite his familiarity with Kurdistan, he also fought against Iraqi forces in Khuzestan in Tariq-ol-Qods and Fath-ol-Mobin. After the IRGC structure was divided into separate regions across Iran, he was given command of the IRGC 7th region, comprising the provinces of Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Ilam, and Hamadan. He also proposed the establishment of the Hamzeh Seyyed-ol-Shohada Base, an independent joint operations center for Army and IRGC forces in western Iran, which was approved and built in Urmia. He also established a special forces unit. Boroujerdi died on May 22, 1983, with several other Iranian soldiers, on the road from Naqadeh to Mahabad, after their vehicle drove over a landmine reportedly planted by Kurdish rebels.
See also List of Iranian commanders in the Iran–Iraq War Military of Iran
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