The London based International daily Asharq al-Owsat cites an informed source in Iran that the Revolutionary Guards Corps, IRGC, has begun court martial processing on a number of IRGC officers and soldiers who have refrained from fighting in Syria. The source has been quoted as saying that the IRGC decision to court martial these officers was following an option given to these officers choosing between being expelled and losing all military and job benefits with fighting for Assad in Syria.
Unprecedented rise in the number of officers who are defecting or resigning the IRGC, especially among those who joined the force for economic reasons and to avoid unemployment has prompted the IRGC to revise its contracts with its personnel asking them for full subordination and agreeing to be dispatched to Syria for fighting along Assad forces, or to be court martialed.
Some of the IRGC commanders have used their retirement benefits and turned to business activities in order to avoid the dual bad options presented by the Corps, the source says.
Asharq al-Owsat writes; the increasing number of killed among the Quds Force, IRGC Special-Forces, commandos and IRGC ground troops has forced the Corps to turn to its executive branch to assign men to go to Syria for fighting.