The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is at the centre of the war between Iran and Israel, leading the clerical establishment's retaliation to Israel's military campaign despite the loss of many of their top commanders in Israeli attacks since Friday.

Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was appointed to lead the group after his predecessor, Gen. Hossein Salami, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp, which Israel has been battering with increasing intensity, were inevitably a prime target as the guardians of a regime built on hatred of the West and after decades of violent subversion often enacted with the aid of that other enemy of the West: Russia.