It was first officially formed as the 2nd Karbala Brigade (تیپ 2 کربلا) during the Iran–Iraq War, and was later expanded into a division.
According to Mohsen Rezaei, after a series of unsuccessful Iranian offensive operations in late stages of the Iran–Iraq War, it was decided to form several new brigades in the IRGC, and one new "special" division. The Karbala Division was later selected to be the special division. A team consisted of Hossein Basir, Mohammad Hassan Tusi, and other commanders were tasked to organize this division, and Morteza Ghorbani was appointed as its commander. Since then, the division was called 25th Karbala Special Division (لشکر 25 ویژه کربلا). The division was employed in the First Battle of al-Faw, which was successful in capturing the strategic Al-Faw Peninsula.[2] According to Iranian sources, Iraqi General Maher Abd al-Rashid had described the unit as a "black scorpion" that should be destroyed,[3][4] possibly a reference to their black frogman suits during the battle.
Sepah-e Karbala
The division was merged with a Basij unit in the Mazandaran Province to form the Mazandaran Karbala Provincial Corps during the rearrangement of the IRGC units in 2008.
