Hours after Israel killed Iran’s top Basij commander early Tuesday, Israel struck again—this time at rank-and-file Basij elements in and around Tehran, the Associated Press reported March 20. The AP described a drone strike hitting a Basij roadblock near the capital and said Israeli and U.S. officials frame the campaign as intended to disrupt Iran’s domestic-control tools.
The AP reported that the strikes have expanded from targeting top echelons and major bases of the Revolutionary Guard and its Basij volunteers to include lower-ranking Basij checkpoints. It said there has been no clear sign that Iranians are heeding U.S. and Israeli calls to rise up amid ongoing airstrikes and uncertainty.
Residents told AP that security forces—including Basij-related patrols—remained visibly deployed across Tehran. The AP also reported that monitors say an intensified crackdown that began with the crushing of January’s nationwide protests continues, including efforts to target people who film strikes or seek ways around a weekslong internet blackout to contact the outside world.
The AP reported that Israel’s strikes on Basij checkpoints started March 11, with at least 15 incidents in a single day documented by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a U.S.-based monitoring group. Netanyahu said the next day that “We are landing crushing blows on the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, both in the streets and at checkpoints,” adding that the aim was to create conditions for Iranians to overthrow their government.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it hit more than 10 Basij positions across Tehran, according to the AP. The AP reported it verified video posted online showing two vehicles burning near traffic cones on a multilane boulevard in central Tehran, and said the location matched aerial footage released by the Israeli military of a Tuesday strike hitting a checkpoint as a bus and cars passed.
In parallel, Iranians shared videos and social media posts showing checkpoint locations, sometimes tagging the Farsi account of the Israeli military and urging it to strike. The AP said some videos showed checkpoints under bridges, apparently as cover from strikes, while other posts circulated information intended to help commuters avoid bottlenecks on routes through the checkpoints.
Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told AP that the Basij has tens of thousands of volunteers under the Revolutionary Guard’s command, and that most of them are unarmed and engaged in “ideological and political activities.” He compared the role to the Communist Party model in the Soviet Union, describing branches in schools, universities, government institutions and other organizations, and said volunteers can also harass people who flout social restrictions and help organize state events, including counterprotests.
Azizi also told AP that district-level Basij paramilitary units deploy during domestic unrest, including during the January protests, with tools that range from batons and electroshock devices to live ammunition. He said the Basij’s role since the protests and into the current war has been to provide manpower and help security agencies focus on information gathering and arrests by manning checkpoints.
The AP said the crackdown continued alongside the air campaign. It reported that Iran announced the execution of three men detained in the January protests, the first such sentences known to have been carried out, and that semiofficial outlets reported the arrest of more than 100 people across Iran in the last week, most accused of conspiring with enemy states or sharing media reports with foreign entities. It said at least 14 were accused of possessing Starlink internet dishes or planning to sell them or virtual private network cards during a period when Starlink has been one of the only ways to access the global internet since an unprecedented blackout began Jan. 8.
The AP also reported that authorities reportedly shut down parts of Iran’s internal internet and revoked some VPN cards used by people with specialized jobs. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center said people were rounded up for taking pictures identifying checkpoint locations, bases and military installations, and that authorities still detain people linked to the January protests, former political prisoners, or members of minorities.
In one incident described by the AP, the rights group said security forces opened fire at a checkpoint after honking by two teenage brothers; both were shot and killed after the war’s opening salvo that included the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the AP account.
Azizi said Israel’s killing of Basij’s top commander is unlikely to disrupt the force’s functioning. He told AP that the Basij chief is chosen for “ideological rigidity and demonstrated loyalty to the supreme leader,” and said that in most cases Basij units operate autonomously or semiautonomously, particularly in operational matters.