In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “special unit of iran 's army of the guardians of the islamic revolution”. Today it says “one of five branches of iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “special unit of iran 's army of the guardians of the islamic revolution”. Today it says “one of five branches of iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Iranian special forces (established 1988) Military unit The Quds Force ( Persian : نیروی قدس , romanized : niru-ye qods , lit. ' Jerusalem Force ' ) is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States. Responsible for extraterritorial operations , the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah , Hamas , Palestinian Islamic Jihad , the Houthi movement , and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. According to Michael Wigginton et al., the Quds Force is "a classic example of state-sponsored terrorism ." The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran , Ayatollah Khamenei . After Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike , his deputy, Esmail Qaani , replaced him. Secretary of State designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2019 based on the IRGC's "continued support to and engagement in terrorist activity around the world." This was the first time that the U.S. ever designated another government's department as a FTO. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain . Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics . This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army . "Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps wrestles with new reality after killing of its chief military strategist" . United States Department of State .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1297833953.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The Quds Force ( , translit. Niru-ye Qods ), (or Qods Force ) is a special unit of Iran 's Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (Revolutionary Guard). It has been described as "tasked with exporting" Iran's Islamic revolution, or "responsible for extraterritorial operations" of the Revolutionary Guard. The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . Its current commander is Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani . While "little is reliably known" about the force by outsiders, as of 2007, its size was estimated at 15,000 troops and operatives.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 366733872.
The opening as it stood in 2015 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Military unit The Quds Force (also spelled Ghods or Qods ) ( Nīrū-ye Qods or سپاه قدس Sepâh-e Qods ), in English : the Jerusalem Force , is a special forces unit of Iran 's Revolutionary Guards and is responsible for their extraterritorial operations . The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran , Ali Khamenei . Its commander is Major General Qasem Soleimani and his deputy is Hossein Hamadani . While "little is reliably known" about the force, as of 2007, its size was estimated at 15,000 troops.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 665815230.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Iranian special forces (established 1988) Military unit The Quds Force ( ) is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations.Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States.Responsible for extraterritorial operations , the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah , Hamas , Palestinian Islamic Jihad , Yemeni Houthis , and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran , Ayatollah Khamenei . After Qassem Soleimani was killed, his deputy, Esmail Ghaani , replaced him.Secretary of State designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2019 based on the IRGC's "continued support to and engagement in terrorist activity around the world." This was the first time that the U.S. ever designated another government's department as a FTO.This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army ."Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps wrestles with new reality after killing of its chief military strategist" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1172379152.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “special unit of iran 's army of the guardians of the islamic revolution”. Today it says “one of five branches of iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps”. Read the current article and compare.
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terror
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2015 and 6 October 2023.
Then
special forces unit of iran 's revolutionary guards and is responsible for their extraterritorial operations
Now
one of five branches of iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
