Another Provocation
Outside of the regular military of Iran is the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, AKA the Revolutionary Guards or Pasdaran. The Special Forces unit of the AGIR is the Quds Force which has an interesting history:
The Quds Force was created during the Iran-Iraq war as a special unit from the broader Pasdaran forces. After the war, Quds Force continued to support the Kurds fighting Saddam Hussein, during the war it had helped the Kurds fight the Iraqi military. The Quds also expanded their operations into other areas, most notably aiding Ahmed Shah Massoud’s Northern Alliance against the Soviets during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and then helping Massoud after the war against Taliban forces. There were also reports of the Quds forces lending support to Muslim Bosnians fighting the Serbs during the Yugoslav wars.
The US supported the Kurds. The US supported the Northern Alliance against the Soviets and the Taliban.
This CNN report, U.S. eyes terror tag for Iranian force, is fairly good example of how these people never let reality intrude on their thought processes.
Here’s a hint – the Sunni fundamentalists like the Taliban and al Qaeda believe that all Shi’ia are heretics who must be killed. Unlike the US, the government of Iran does not provide support to people who want to kill them.