The Gendarmerie was among Iran’ s key law enforcement organizations during the Iran-Iraq War.

The history of the Gendarmerie dates back to the late Qajar period. In 1911, at the request of the Iranian government, three Swedish officers led by Major Harald Hjalmarson arrived in Iran and established the Gendarmerie.⁠[1] After the 1921 coup d' é tat led by Reza Khan, the two viable military forces that existed in Iran at that point, i. e., the Cossack division and the Gendarmerie, were merged to create the Iranian national army. After World War II, the Gendarmerie was reconstructed once again with the help of American advisors.⁠[2]

The Gendarmerie expanded during the second Pahlavi era, and on the eve of the Islamic Revolution, it maintained approximately 2000 outposts to control various regions of the country.⁠[3] At that time, the force consisted of 74,000 personnel and 32 helicopters. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Gendarmerie, like the Army, faced a reduction in manpower. By 1980, its personnel strength had fallen to roughly one‑third of its pre‑Revolution level.⁠[4]

After the Revolution and the onset of internal crises, the Gendarmerie engaged in countering anti-revolutionary elements, particularly in Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan. In the meantime, following the reduction of mandatory military service from two years to one, the Gendarmerie faced a shortage of conscripts. To make up for the manpower shortage, the Gendarmerie brought in a lot of local recruits from Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan, calling them Javanmardan (the Brave).⁠[5] With their help, the force eventually grew to about 170,000 personnel.⁠[6]

With the start of Iraqi border incursions in 1979, the Gendarmerie— as the custodian of border affairs— was the first military institution to confront the enemy. Before the war officially began in September 1980, more than 132 border skirmishes broke out between Gendarmerie units and the Iraqi army, leaving 20 personnel martyred, around 60 wounded, and five gendarmes taken prisoner.⁠[7]

Iraqi border aggressions intensified in the first half of September 1980. On September 7, Iraqi ground forces heavily shelled the Gendarmerie outposts in Ilam, Qasr-e Shirin, Naft Shahr, Sumar, Khorramshahr, and Khosrowabad in Abadan, using their artillery batteries.⁠[8]

With the launch of Iraq’ s full-scale invasion on September 22, 1980, the Gendarmerie confronted the enemy along the entire shared border from the south to the northwest. Gendarmerie units in West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam, and Khuzestan were among the forces positioned on the frontlines. In these areas, organizational units such as regiments, companies, and outposts were each involved in the war in some capacity. Furthermore, non-organizational combat battalions covered the front from the Qotoor Valley in West Azerbaijan all the way down to Arvandkenar in Khuzestan.⁠[9]

The Gendarmerie played a vital role in resisting the Iraqi army’ s attack on the southern Khuzestan region. In the early days of the invasion, a non-organizational headquarters was formed under the command of Colonel Hassan Razavi, the then-commander of the Khuzestan Gendarmerie. Armed forces— including the Army, Gendarmerie, Shahrbani (city police), Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran), and Basij in Khorramshahr and Abadan— operated under this headquarters until October 22, 1980.⁠[10] As enemy attacks intensified, and to improve coordination among the armed forces east of the Karun River and in Abadan, Colonel Hassan‑Ali Foroozan, the Chief Commander of the Gendarmerie, was sent to Mahshahr with a group of gendarmes on October 16 by order of the Army Staff to establish the Arvand Operational Headquarters. Meanwhile, the 201st Relief Battalion of Gendarmerie District 1 was airlifted to Mahshahr and sent to Abadan to help prevent the region from falling.⁠[11]

Despite being primarily a law enforcement organization dedicated to internal order and security in rural areas and border zones, the Gendarmerie shifted its approach with the onset of war and the necessity of national defense. To adapt the organization to these conditions and allow direct participation in the conflict, Iranian officials implemented a plan to form 25 combat battalions with a full military structure, modeled after Army infantry battalions. Moreover, the combat battalions of the Gendarmerie stationed in the west and south of the country took on an operational role. During the Iran-Iraq War, 40 units were actively deployed in various offensive operations and in maintaining defensive positions.⁠[12]

The Gendarmerie units participated in the series of operations that led to the liberation of Khuzestan. For instance, the 107th Gendarmerie Battalion took part in Operation Thamen al-Aemmah (as) in September 1981, which broke the siege of Abadan.⁠[13] The Gendarmerie also participated in operations Tariq al-Quds and Beit al-Muqaddas. As the occupied areas of Khuzestan were liberated, Gendarmerie outposts were set up again throughout the region.⁠[14]

Following the liberation of the occupied territories, Gendarmerie forces were deployed and took up defensive positions to secure the freed areas.⁠[15] Gendarmerie units participated in Operation Muharram in 1982 west of Einkhosh, which led to the liberation of approximately 550 square kilometers of occupied land in northwestern Khuzestan. They were also present in Operation Nasr 2, conducted in the Meimak Heights in June 1987.⁠[16]

Colonel Hassan-Ali Foroozan, Colonel Ali Koochak-zadeh, and Brigadier General Muhammad Sohrabi commanded the Gendarmerie from 1980 until the end of the war in 1988.⁠[17] Throughout the Iran-Iraq War, the Gendarmerie suffered 2,378 martyrs, 11,218 wounded, and 683 missing-in-action; 1,626 personnel were taken prisoner of war and later released after the conflict.⁠[18]

After the end of the Iran– Iraq War, and in accordance with the Law for the Merger of Law Enforcement Forces passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly and approved by the Commander‑in‑Chief, the Gendarmerie officially merged with the Shahrbani and the Islamic Revolutionary Committees into a single national law enforcement body, i. e., the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran.⁠[19]