Last night, Wednesday, February 24, Mojahedin operational units inside Iran launched a mortar attack on Najaf Garrison, the Command headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards Corps in western Iran and the Command HQ of the Guards' 4th Division, located in the heart of the city of Kermanshah, according to the Mojahedin's command inside Iran.

The mortars hit and destroyed parts of the garrison.

The Guards' Command HQ in Kermanshah commands the entire Revolutionary Guards forces in western Iran, including the combat units and those stationed in the cities. It also commands the paramilitary Bassij forces in Kermanshah, Ilam and Hamedan provinces.

Najaf Garrison in also responsible for extra-territorial terrorist operations and training terrorists to be sent abroad. In 1991, it commanded seven Guards Corps divisions and brigades which entered Iraq to suppress the Mojahedin.
 

"A Minimum of Freedom Could Sweep Them All Away, Khatami Included," BBC World Service, February 24

Iran's general elections have turned the country's focus sharply on the nation's young people…

Many young people say they are disappointed with the slow pace of reform.

''Khatami doesn't really believe in any change,'' says one student. ''The way the president speaks has changed. But nothing really has changed. I still can't have so many obvious things - basic human rights.

''I believe Khatami and the whole system knows that even a minimum of freedom being given to people could sweep them all away, not just conservatives but all of them, Khatami included.

''That's why I say nothing has really changed, because Khatami himself believes that nothing should change.''

Another student says there have been changes, but they are superficial.

''I think they've been given as just sops,'' he adds. ''We have a freer press, but even these people writing in this freer press still have some links with the regime, or a good revolutionary record.

''But people belonging to the unofficial opposition or other nationalist groups are as unprotected as before. They are arrested as usual, they get disappeared as usual.''
 

Daily Attacks Rival For Predicting "End of Revolution", (State-controlled daily) Kayhan, February 22

A newspaper, [Asr-e Azadegan], which is inclined towards the illegal grouplets… tried to present… Khatami as a reformer, who has appeared during the revolution's terminal phase… Furthermore, in a theoretical analysis… the daily says: "The struggle between the reformers and extremists will eventually lead to the dissolution of the regime's entire legitimacy."…

… This is in line with the psychological warfare of global arrogance, which is trying to bring despondency to the revolutionary people of Iran and other nations, by instilling the idea that the revolution has ended.
 

The People against the Mullahs, The Economist, February 18

… The basis of Iran's theocratic system is velayat-e faqih, or the rule of the religious jurist. This… concept… gives one man… absolute authority over all vital matters of state….No important decisions can be taken without his consent… Khatami… certainly does not question, at least out loud, the basic structure of the Islamic republic or its hierarchy…

This straddling of functions could, before long, become untenable. More impetuous Iranians are beginning to question, and balk at, the undemocratic set-up. An early sign of this impatience came during last July's student demonstrations in Tehran… But as the protest gathered steam, a few of the demonstrators crossed a crucial line. They… dared, however indirectly, to question the velayat-e faqih, the mainstay of the Islamic system itself…

Conservatives quail from laying a finger on the sacred concept. Any tinkering, they believe, would be dangerous. Even if the approach were minimal, the momentum could, in the end, lead in some way to the destruction of Khomeini's Islamic vision, the theocratic state… The [reformists] argue that if Iran continues to rock jerkily between reform and regression, there will almost certainly be repetitions of last summer's student riots-and the regime's brutal response.

They have a point. At pre-election rallies this week, students have been saying that this election is Mr. Khatami's last chance. If a reformist parliament is voted in, they will expect him to introduce fundamental change. If not, they will take matters into their own hands. The young and impatient are growing increasingly intolerant not only of clerical rule, but of clerical prudence too.

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