Iran’s army is preparing to provide basic military training to civilian volunteers under the state-backed Janfada campaign, as Tehran expands efforts to organize and train volunteers amid heightened regional tensions.
Iran’s West Asia News Agency reported that the training program began Sunday, October 4, at three military training centers in Tehran. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Arian-Nejad, the army’s deputy for training and education, said personnel from the army’s four branches would be responsible for training the volunteers.
Arian-Nejad said participants would initially receive basic military instruction before moving on to more advanced training. Iranian reports said the army has allocated three major training facilities in Tehran for the program, while personnel from its ground, air, naval and air-defense branches are expected to participate in training activities.
The move expands an initiative that has increasingly shifted from a civilian mobilization campaign toward organized military and emergency training. Iran announced earlier that it planned to train and organize 1,000 Janfada national resistance battalions, with the campaign coordinating with the armed forces for the program.
The Janfada, or “Life-Sacrificers,” campaign is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij paramilitary organization. A Janfada training center opened in Tehran in September under Basij supervision, with training described as covering military preparedness, local security, surveillance and reconnaissance, search and rescue, marksmanship and weapons operations.
The expansion of civilian military training comes as Iran faces continued security tensions following recent confrontations with the United States and Israel. Tehran has increasingly emphasized public preparedness, emergency response and the mobilization of civilian manpower alongside its regular military and paramilitary forces.
Iranian authorities have presented the Janfada campaign as a means of strengthening national defense and emergency readiness. Independent reports, however, have raised questions about participation figures and the extent to which the campaign is developing into an organized auxiliary military structure.
