Yesterday, Marco Rubio suggested that the Iranian regime is fracturing under the pressure of war with the US and Israel. To some extent, the Secretary of State may want to create fractures as well as exploit any that have actually emerged, as the Israelis in particular keep targeting and killing top leadership in the IRGC and Basij. Both the US and Israel want to take out as much of the forces that conduct internal oppression as possible, in an effort to allow for a popular revolt and coup against the IRGC and the mullahs.
How effective has that effort been? We can glean that the IRGC and Basij are now facing critical shortages of manpower from their attempts to recruit underage boys into their ranks. The regime itself has confirmed that effort and has called for “volunteers” as young as twelve years of age:
Rahim Nadali, the deputy director of culture and arts at the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), called for members of the general public to step up and “defend the homeland” in comments to Iran’s state news agency Defa Press.
Mr Nadali said the IRGC, which played a central role in the crackdown on Iranian protesters in January, would offer opportunities to the Iranian public to “play a role” in the conflict.
He said volunteers from the age of 12 and above could be considered for roles in operational and security areas, support and logistics, service and supplies or health and treatment.
The IRGC has also stepped up its efforts to execute anyone suspected of disloyalty to the regime. The NCRI has issued statements about the killings of four members of their resistance units in Iran in the past two days, sent via email to the media. All four of them had been imprisoned long before the war:
At dawn on Monday, March 30, 2026, the clerical regime’s executioners in a barbaric act hanged two members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), Akbar (Shahrokh) Daneshvarkar and Mohammad Taghavi at Ghezel Hesar Prison.
Slain PMOI member, Mohammad Taghavi, 59, was a long-standing political prisoner with a history of persecution dating back to the 1980s and 1990s. He was previously arrested in 2020 on charges of affiliation with the PMOI and spent three years in prison before his release. He was re-arrested in March 2024.
Akbar Daneshvarkar, 58, a civil engineer, was arrested in January 2024.
Both prisoners were subjected to savage torture in the notorious Ward 209 of Evin Prison. In December 2024, Branch 26 of the Tehran “Revolutionary Court”, presided over by the notorious “judge” Iman Afshari, sentenced both men to death on charges of “baghi” (armed rebellion) for their membership in the PMOI. The sentence was subsequently confirmed by the regime’s Supreme Court. …
Early this morning (Tuesday, March 31), heroic PMOI members Babak Alipour and Pouya Ghobadi were executed by the ruling religious fascism in Iran and achieved eternal life in Ghezel Hesar Prison. Babak, 34, a lawyer, was arrested in January 2024. He had previously been arrested in November 2018 for his affiliation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Rasht and had spent four years in prison. Pouya Ghobadi, 33, an electrical engineer, was arrested in March 2024. He had also been arrested twice before. In December 2024, they, along with Mohammad Taghavi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Abolhassan Montazeri, and Vahid Bani-Amerian, were sentenced to death by the criminal judge Iman Afshari, head of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, on charges of “membership in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran” after months of interrogation and torture. Yesterday, Mohammad Taghavi and Akbar Daneshvarkar faced the gallows with courage.
This looks like a regime in a hurry to quash what will inevitably come after a humiliating defeat for a military junta. They are trying to bolster their brownshirts in the streets with little boys, killing off political opponents in prison, and likely will restart mass shootings in the streets given the chance and the resources.
And the IRGC may have already begun to import the latter. Iran International claimed yesterday that the IRGC’s Iraqi militias have begun deploying into Iran already, to protect the regime from a “coup”:
Dismay and alarm are spreading among Iranians over reports and images showing Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, or Hashd al-Shaabi, inside Iran, with messages sent to Iran International describing fear, anger and a growing sense of insecurity.
The strongest reaction has come from people in cities where the forces have reportedly been seen, especially in the southwest.
Viewers who contacted Iran International said the arrival of Hashd al-Shaabi fighters in Abadan had made the city feel “unsafe and frightening,” and said residents were worried about their children.
One viewer described the forces as “terrorists” and said their entry into Iran, particularly in Ahvaz, Khorramshahr and Abadan, was aimed at “another massacre of the people.”
These reports have not been fully confirmed, at least not for intent. Over the previous couple of days, social media posts showed columns of IPMF forces moving into Iran. Those were ostensibly convoys for food aid, but were at least escorted by what looks like armored units. The armed presence of Iraqi units in Iran suggests that food aid is a handy cover for a mobilization of foreign forces to suppress the Iranian people, and Iranians on the ground certainly have taken that message to heart:
One user, referring to reports of their presence in Khorramshahr, wrote: “God freed Khorramshahr, and with the help of the disgraceful Islamic Republic it has been occupied again.”
Another wrote: “Hashd al-Shaabi terrorists have officially entered Iran. This is the invasion of Iranian soil by a foreign ground force. We must stand against it completely.”
Another user mocked pro-government rhetoric by writing: “What happened to the people who said domestic problems must be solved inside the family? Is Hashd al-Shaabi family too? Here, a foreign force is acceptable? But if we ask for help, we are traitors?”
Rubio may be right; the regime already shows signs of fracturing. However, they are not out of options either, and the transfer of armed combatants from Iraq shows that the regime is still capable of defending itself from a popular revolt.
Update: The Jerusalem Post also takes notice of increased executions, and what it might mean:
Iran executed two men tied to the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), adding to two other men who were executed on Monday, the group said on Tuesday, confirming a report by Iran’s judiciary news outlet. …
United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran warned on Tuesday that, while the internet shutdown had made it difficult to monitor executions, it was “clear” the regime is using executions as “a means of suppressing political dissent amid war.”
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism Professor Ben Saul added that he also condemned “Iran’s misuse of the death penalty in alleged security cases in violation of the right to life.”
The latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today’s show features:
- The Washington Post had to correct a story that turned out to be IRGC propaganda.
- Why did the Post fail to vet this supposedly “independent” journalist who openly bragged that he was traveling to Iran at the regime’s invitation to report on war crimes by the “Epstein regime”?
- Andrew Malcom and I discuss that, plus Donald Trump’s long history of urging action on Iran.
The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!
Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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