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Qasem Soleimani

January 01, 1970

Qasem Soleimani (Persian: قاسم سلیمانی, romanized: Qâsem Soleymâni; 11 March 1957[note 1] – 3 January 2020) was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). From 1998 until his assassination by the United States in 2020, he was the commander of the Quds Force, an IRGC division primarily responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine military operations, and played a key role in the Syrian Civil War through securing Russian intervention.[12] He was described as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East" and a "genius of asymmetric warfare,"[13][14][unreliable source?] and former Mossad director Yossi Cohen said Soleimani's strategies had "personally tightened a noose around Israel's neck."[15] In his later years, he was considered by some analysts to be the right-hand man of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and the second-most powerful person in Iran behind Khamenei.[16][17][18]

Sardar

Qasem Soleimani
Soleimani with the Order of Zolfaghar in 2019
Native name
قاسم سلیمانی
Nickname(s)
Born(1957-03-11)11 March 1957[note 1]
Qanat-e Malek, Kerman Province, Imperial State of Iran
Died3 January 2020(2020-01-03) (aged 62)[7]
Baghdad Airport Road, Baghdad, Iraq
Buried
Kerman Martyrs Cemetery, Kerman, Iran[8]
30°17′31″N 57°07′44″E / 30.291984°N 57.128931°E / 30.291984; 57.128931
Allegiance Iran
Service/branch Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Years of service1979–2020
RankMajor General
Lieutenant General[note 2]
Commands held
Battles/wars
Awards
Children6 including Zeinab Soleimani

For attacks orchestrated or attempted against American and other targets abroad, Soleimani was personally sanctioned by the United Nations and the European Union,[19][20][21] and was designated as a terrorist by the United States in 2005.[22][23][24] The United States military assassinated Soleimani in a targeted drone strike on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad, Iraq. Iranian government officials publicly mourned Soleimani's death and launched missiles against U.S. military bases in Iraq, wounding 110 American troops.[25][26] Iranian propaganda outlets subsequently represented Soleimani as a national hero.[27][28][29][30]

Early life

Soleimani was born on 11 March 1957,[note 1] in the village of Qanat-e Malek, Kerman Province.[32][33][34][35][note 3] He left school at the age of 13 and moved to the city of Kerman to work on a construction site to help repay his father's agricultural debts.[32][33][37] In 1975, he began working as a contractor for the Kerman Water Organization.[32][38][39] When not at work, he spent his time with weight training in local gyms, or attending the sermons of Hojjat Kamyab, a preacher and a protégé of Ali Khamenei, who according to Soleimani encouraged him to "revolutionary activities".[2][40] His family is of Lurs descent.[41]

Military career

Soleimani joined the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) in 1979[38] following the Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini take power. Reportedly, his training was minimal, but he advanced rapidly. Early in his career as a guardsman, he helped to prevent a Kurdish uprising in northwestern Iran.[2]

I entered the [Iran–Iraq War] on a fifteen-day mission, and ended up staying until the end ... We were all young and wanted to serve the revolution.

— Quoted in Dexter Filkins (30 September 2013), "The Shadow Commander", The New Yorker

On 22 September 1980, when Saddam Hussein launched an invasion of Iran, setting off the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), Soleimani joined the battlefield serving as the leader of a military company, consisting of men from Kerman whom he assembled and trained.[42] He quickly earned a reputation for bravery,[43] and rose through the ranks because of his role in successful operations to retake the lands Iraq had occupied, and eventually became the commander of the 41st Tharallah Division while still in his 20s, participating in most of the war's battles and major operations. He was mostly stationed at the southern front.[42][44] He was seriously injured in Operation Tariq-ol-Qods. In a 1990 interview, he mentioned Operation Fath-ol-Mobin as "the best" operation he participated in and "very memorable", due to its difficulties yet positive outcome.[45] He was also engaged in leading and organizing irregular warfare missions deep inside Iraq by the Ramadan Headquarters.[clarification needed] It was at this point that Soleimani established relations with Kurdish Iraqi leaders and the Shia Badr Organization, both opposed to Saddam Hussein.[42]

On 17 July 1985, Soleimani opposed the IRGC leadership's plan to deploy forces to two islands in western Arvand Rud, on the Shatt al-Arab River.[46][why?]

After the war, during the 1990s, he was an IRGC commander in Kerman Province.[44] In this region, which is relatively close to Afghanistan, Afghan-grown opium travels to Turkey and on to Europe.[citation needed] Soleimani's military experience helped him earn a reputation as a successful fighter against drug trafficking.[2]

During the 1999 student protests in Tehran, Soleimani was one of the IRGC officers who signed a letter to President Mohammad Khatami warning that if he did not suppress the protests, the military would, and suggesting Khatami would be deposed.[2][47][48] According to the former IRGC commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari, Soleimani also intervened in the 2009 protests to "control the insecurity and riots".[49]

Command of Quds Force

 
Soleimani receiving the Order of Zolfaghar from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

The exact date of his appointment as commander of the IRGC's Quds Force is not clear, but Ali Alfoneh cites it as between 10 September 1997 and 21 March 1998.[38] He was considered one of the possible successors to the post of commander of the IRGC when General Yahya Rahim Safavi left this post in 2007. In 2008, he led a group of Iranian investigators looking into the death of Imad Mughniyah. Soleimani helped arrange a ceasefire between the Iraqi Army and Mahdi Army in March 2008.[50]

Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, senior U.S. State Department official Ryan Crocker flew to Geneva to meet with Iranian diplomats who were under the leadership of Soleimani with the purpose of collaborating to destroy the Taliban.[2] This collaboration was instrumental in defining the targets of air bombing operations in Afghanistan and in capturing key Al-Qaeda operatives, but suddenly ended in January 2002, when President George W. Bush named Iran as part of the "Axis of evil" in his State of the Union address.[2]

Soleimani strengthened the relationship between Quds Force and Hezbollah upon his appointment, and supported the latter by sending in operatives to retake southern Lebanon.[2] In an interview aired in October 2019, he said he was in Lebanon during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War to manage the conflict.[51]

During the Iraq War, the Quds Force oversaw the production and mass smuggling into Iraq of improvised explosively formed penetrator (EFP) roadside bombs, which, according to American estimates, were used by the Iraqi insurgency to cause 500 deaths and over 21,000 injuries to American soldiers.[52][53][54] The Quds Force also planned and orchestrated what is thought to be the "boldest and most sophisticated" commando raid against U.S. troops in Iraq, the January 2007 Karbala provincial headquarters raid,[55] and played a coordinating role in Hezbollah's defense from Israel in the 2006 Lebanon War, where Soleimani was personally involved.[56]

In 2009, The Economist stated on the basis of a leaked report that Christopher R. Hill and General Raymond T. Odierno (America's two most senior officials in Baghdad at the time) met with Soleimani in the office of Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, but withdrew the story after Hill and Odierno denied the occurrence of the meeting.[57][58][59]

On 24 January 2011, Soleimani was promoted to Major General (Sarlaskar) by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.[44][60][61] Khamenei was described as having a close relationship with him, calling Soleimani a "living martyr" and helping him financially.[2]

Soleimani was described by an ex-CIA operative, responsible for clandestine operations, as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today" and the principal military strategist and tactician in Iran's effort to deter Western influence and promote the expansion of Shia and Iranian influence throughout the Middle East.[2] In Iraq, as the commander of the Quds Force, he was believed to have strongly influenced the organization of the Iraqi government, notably supporting the election of previous Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.[2][62]

A report issued, late January 2020, by government factions close to IRGC and published by Fars News Agency reveals some of Quds force's infiltration, under the command of Qassem Soleimani, in other countries. The 1992–95 Bosnian War is brought as an example.[63]

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan

In 1998 Soleimani played a role in diffusing the crisis between Iran and the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan caused by the 8 August 1998 killing of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan and the 1998 Mazar-i-Sharif massacre of Hazara Shias by the Taliban. While the Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yahya Rahim Safavi, advocated for an Iranian invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, Soleimani convinced Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that a policy of "strategic patience" would be more fruitful. Soleimani instead tripled Iranian support for the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and his Quds Force ran a secret training camp in Tajikistan for its fighters.[64]

When the United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 after the September 11 attacks, Soleimani's Quds Force collaborated with the U.S. and led the 2001 uprising in Herat against the Taliban, which included the Hazaras, Northern Alliance and Quds Force staging an uprising that liberated the city before U.S. forces came in.[65]

Second Intifada and Gaza tunnels

The Quds Force had cultivated relations with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad since the 1990s under the leadership of Soleimani's predecessor, Brigadier-General Ahmad Vahidi, and the 1995 Kfar Darom bus attack.[66] Soleimani strengthened these relations during the Second Intifada, when he and Hezbollah chief of military operations Imad Mughniyeh oversaw the smuggling of weapons to the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions, according to Lebanese militant Anis al-Naqqash.[67]

After the 2007 imposition of a blockade on the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt, Soleimani's Quds Force has been active in supporting the further construction of tunnels under Gaza and the smuggling of weapons through these tunnels to the armed wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In 2021 senior Hamas representative to Lebanon, Ahmad Abd al-Hadi said:

The idea of [digging] tunnels... Today there are 360 kilometers of tunnels in Gaza. There are more than 360 kilometers of tunnels underground. I won't go into details on this. Two people came up with the idea of digging these tunnels: The first is the martyred commander Imad Mughniyeh, and the second is Hajj Qasem Soleimani who went to Gaza more than once and contributed to the defense plan from the moment it was first drafted. I am not divulging any secret, by the way. The enemies know all this but what the enemies do not know is way more than what they do know.[68]

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has disclosed the fact that Soleimani was present at the Palestinian Joint Operations Room in Damascus, Syria, throughout January 2009, overseeing operations against the Israeli Army during the 2008-2009 Gaza War.[69]

Assistance to the Iraqi insurgency

While Iran actively supported the U.S. effort on the ground in Afghanistan in the closing months of 2001, in his January 2002 State of the Union Address President George W. Bush singled out the country as part of an "axis of evil" along with Saddam Hussein's Iraq (Iran's longtime enemy) and North Korea. After the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq in April 2003, the Quds Force under Soleimani supplied insurgents with weapons, most notably explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) or roadside bombs, used to devastating effect against coalition forces and Blackwater mercenaries, as in the 2004 Fallujah ambush and 2004 Good Friday ambush. The Quds Force also helped in the creation and arming of Shia militias such as the Mahdi Army, Kata'ib Hezbollah and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq.[70][71][72]

On 11 January 2007 the United States raided the Iranian Liaison Office in Erbil, Iraq, based on false intelligence that IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Ali Jafari and Soleimani were there. Nine days later, on January 20, Qais al-Khazali's Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq militia, with the help of Quds Force Brigadier General Abdolreza Shahlaei and Hezbollah operative Ali Musa Daqduq, infiltrated the U.S. Army's Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Headquarters and killed five American soldiers, in what has been called the most daring and sophisticated insurgent operation of the Iraq War.[73] On the same day, twenty more American soldiers were killed by other insurgents throughout Iraq, making it the third worst day for U.S. troops in the entire war.[74][75][76]

2006 Lebanon War

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has said that Soleimani was instrumental in upgrading Hezbollah's military capabilities since he became head of the Quds Force in 1998 and helping transform Hezbollah into a fighting force capable of not only resisting but also deterring Israel.[77]

On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah, under the operational command of Imad Mughniyeh and Khalid Bazzi, launched a cross-border raid into Israel, killing three IDF soldiers and taking two hostages. Israel responded by invading Lebanon. Soleimani on that day was in Damascus, but went to Beirut under intense Israeli bombing and throughout the course of the war stayed in Dahieh alongside Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and military chief Imad Mughniyeh, forming a three-man command to supervise all of Hezbollah's operations during the war.[78]

From the end of the 2006 war, Soleimani scrupulously worked on refurbishing Hezbollah’s missile force to make it a strike force that would deter Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Soleimani invested great resources in filling Hezbollah’s missile stocks. After 2006, Soleimani expended most of his efforts in converting a large part of the Hezbollah missiles into precision missiles. To that end, Soleimani built an operational, technological infrastructure in Syria from which he transferred missiles to Lebanon in convoys. When the missiles’ routes between Syria and Lebanon were uncovered, the Quds commander decided to build precision-targeting factories for Hezbollah in Lebanon. At first, the secret facilities were in the Beirut area, but when Israel discovered them, they were moved to the Baalbek region.[79]

Al-Qaeda

According to some sources Soleimani authorized the 12 May 2003 Riyadh compound bombings targeting Saudi and American interests in Riyadh, carried out by an al-Qaeda cell allegedly operating from Iran with the approval of the Quds Force.[80] Saif al-Adel and Saad bin Laden were implicated in the attacks.[81] According to Seth G. Jones, the bombings were planned by al Qaeda in Iran, with apparent Iranian complicity.[82][83] In May 2003, then-State Department official Ryan Crocker provided information on the upcoming attack to Iranian officials, who apparently took no action.[84] However, according to an interrogation of former al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, al-Adel and Saad were being held prisoner in Iran when the attacks took place.[85] Saad was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in 2009.[86]

Syrian Civil War

See also: Syrian Civil War and Iranian involvement in the Syrian civil war

We're not like the Americans. We don't abandon our friends.

— Attributed to Soleimani by a former Iraqi leader, referring to Syria. Quoted by Dexter Filkins.[2]
 
Map of Al-Qusayr and its environs. The Al-Qusayr offensive was reportedly orchestrated by Soleimani.[2]

According to several sources, including Riad Hijab, a former Syrian premier who deserted in August 2012, Soleimani was one of the strongest supporters of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War.[2][62] Soleimani was involved in planning and carrying out the Siege of Baba Amr during the Siege of Homs since 2011, according to the Syrian Minister of Defense, Ali Abdullah Ayyoub.[87][88] In the later half of 2012, Soleimani assumed personal control of the Iranian intervention in the Syrian Civil War, when the Iranians became deeply concerned about the Assad government's inability to fight the opposition, and the negative consequences to the Islamic Republic if the Syrian government fell. He reportedly coordinated the war from a base in Damascus at which a Lebanese Hezbollah commander and an Iraqi Shia militia coordinator were mobilized, in addition to Syrian and Iranian officers. Under Soleimani, the command "coordinated attacks, trained militias, and set up an elaborate system to monitor rebel communications". According to a Middle Eastern security official Dexter Filkins talked to, thousands of Quds Force and Iraqi Shia militiamen in Syria were "spread out across the entire country".[2] The retaking of Qusayr in May 2013 from rebel forces and Al-Nusra Front[89] was, according to John Maguire, a former CIA officer in Iraq, "orchestrated" by Soleimani.[2]

Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani, the Basij's former deputy commander, helped to run irregular militias that Soleimani hoped would continue the fight if Assad fell.[2] Soleimani helped establish the National Defence Forces (NDF) in 2013 which would formalize the coalition of pro-Assad groups.[90]

Soleimani was much credited in Syria for the strategy that assisted President Bashar al-Assad in finally repulsing rebel forces and recapturing key cities and towns.[91] He was involved in the training of government-allied militias and the coordination of decisive military offensives.[2] The sighting of Iranian UAVs in Syria strongly suggested that his command, the Quds Force, was involved in the civil war.[2]

In a visit to the Lebanese capital Beirut on 29 January 2015, Soleimani laid wreaths at the graves of the slain Hezbollah members, including Jihad Mughniyah, which strengthened suspicions about a collaboration between Hezbollah and the Quds Force.[92]

Orchestration of military coalition in 2015

See also: Russia–Syria–Iran–Iraq coalition

In 2015, Soleimani began gathering support from various sources to combat the newly resurgent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rebel groups which had both successfully taken large swaths of territory from Assad's forces. He was reportedly the main architect of the joint intervention involving Russia as a new partner with Assad and Hezbollah.[93][94]

According to Reuters, at a meeting in Moscow in July, Soleimani unfurled a map of Syria to explain to his Russian hosts how a series of defeats for President Bashar al-Assad could be turned into victory—with Russia's help. Soleimani's visit to Moscow was the first step in planning for the Russian military intervention that has reshaped the Syrian war and forged a new Iran–Russia alliance in support of the Syrian (and Iraqi) governments. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, also sent a senior envoy to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin. "Putin reportedly told [a senior Iranian envoy] 'Okay we will intervene. Send Qassem Soleimani.'" General Soleimani went to explain the map of the theatre and coordinate the strategic escalation of military forces in Syria.[94]

Operations in Aleppo

 
Map of the 2015 Aleppo offensives[95][96][97][98][99][100]
Main article: Aleppo offensive (October–December 2015)

Soleimani had a decisive impact on the theater of operations, which led to a strong advance in southern Aleppo with the government and allied forces re-capturing two military bases and dozens of towns and villages in a matter of weeks. There was also a series of major advances towards Kuweiris air-base to the north-east.[101] By mid-November, the Syrian army and its allies had gained ground in southern areas of Aleppo Governorate, capturing numerous rebel strongholds. Soleimani was reported to have personally led the drive deep into the southern Aleppo countryside where many towns and villages fell into government hands. He reportedly commanded the Syrian Arab Army's 4th Mechanized Division, Hezbollah, Harakat Al-Nujaba (Iraqi), Kata'ib Hezbollah (Iraqi), Liwaa Abu Fadl Al-Abbas (Iraqi), and Firqa Fatayyemoun (Afghan/Iranian volunteers).[102]

In early February 2016, backed by Russian and Syrian air force airstrikes, the 4th Mechanized Division—in close coordination with Hezbollah, the National Defense Forces (NDF), Kata'eb Hezbollah, and Harakat Al-Nujaba—launched an offensive in Aleppo Governorate's northern countryside,[103] which eventually broke the three-year siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa and cut off the rebels' main supply route from Turkey. According to a senior, non-Syrian security source close to Damascus, Iranian fighters played a crucial role in the conflict. "Qassem Soleimani is there in the same area", he said.[104] In December 2016, new photos emerged of Soleimani at the Citadel of Aleppo, though the exact date of the photos is unknown.[105][106]

In late March 2017, Soleimani was seen in the northern Hama Governorate countryside in Syria, reportedly aiding Major General Suheil al-Hassan to repel a major rebel offensive.[107]

War against ISIL in Iraq

See also: War in Iraq (2013–2017) and Iranian intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
 
A map of Saladin Governorate in Iraq. Soleimani was involved in breaking the Siege of Amirli by ISIL in the eastern part of the governorate.[108]

Soleimani had a significant role in Iran's fight against ISIL in Iraq. He was described as the "linchpin" bringing together Kurdish and Shia forces to fight ISIS, overseeing joint operations conducted by the two groups.[109]

In 2014, Soleimani was in the Iraqi city of Amirli, to work with Iraqi forces to push back ISIL militants.[110] The Los Angeles Times reported that Amirli was the first town to successfully withstand an ISIL invasion, and was secured thanks to "an unusual partnership of Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers, Iranian-backed Shia militias and U.S. warplanes".[111][112]

A senior Iraqi official told the BBC that when the city of Mosul fell, the rapid reaction of Iran, rather than American bombing, was what prevented a more widespread collapse.[113] Soleimani also seems to have been instrumental in planning the operation to relieve Amirli in Saladin Governorate, where ISIL had laid siege to an important city.[108] In fact, the Quds force operatives under Soleimani's command seem to have been deeply involved not only with the Iraqi army and Shia militias but also with the Kurdish forces in the Battle of Amirli,[114] providing liaisons for intelligence-sharing along with arms, munitions and expertise.[115]

In the operation to liberate Jurf Al Sakhar, he was reportedly "present on the battlefield". Some Shia militia commanders described Soleimani as "fearless", one pointing out that the Iranian general never wears a flak jacket even on the front lines.[116]

In November 2014, Shia and Kurdish forces under Soleimani's command pushed ISIL out of the Iraqi villages of Jalawla and Saadia in the Diyala Governorate.[109][117][118]

 
Soleimani praying in the Syrian desert in 2017

Soleimani played an integral role in the organization and planning of the crucial operation to retake the city of Tikrit in Iraq from ISIL. The city of Tikrit rests on the left bank of the Tigris river and is the largest and most important city between Baghdad and Mosul, giving it a high strategic value. The city fell to ISIL during 2014 when ISIL made immense gains in northern and central Iraq. After its capture, ISIL's massacre at Camp Speicher led to 1,600 to 1,700 deaths of Iraqi Army cadets and soldiers. After months of careful preparation and intelligence gathering an offensive to encircle and capture Tikrit was launched in early March 2015.[118]

In 2016, photos published by a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) source showed Soleimani attending a meeting of PMF commanders in Iraq to discuss the Battle of Fallujah.[119]

CIA chief Mike Pompeo said he sent Soleimani and other Iranian leaders a letter holding them responsible for any attacks on U.S. interests by forces under their control. According to Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, a senior aide for Iran's supreme leader, Soleimani ignored the letter when it was handed over to him during the Abu Kamal offensive against ISIL, saying "I will not take your letter nor read it and I have nothing to say to these people."[120][121]

Political career

 
Soleimani speaking at International Day of Mosque conference

In 1999, Soleimani, along with other senior IRGC commanders, signed a letter to then-President Mohammad Khatami regarding the student protests in July. They wrote "Dear Mr. Khatami, how long do we have to shed tears, sorrow over the events, practice democracy by chaos and insults, and have revolutionary patience at the expense of sabotaging the system? Dear president, if you don't make a revolutionary decision and act according to your Islamic and national missions, tomorrow will be so late and irrecoverable that cannot be even imagined."[122]

Iranian media reported in 2012 that he might be replaced as the commander of Quds Force in order to allow him to run in the 2013 presidential election.[123] He reportedly refused to be nominated for the election.[122] According to BBC News, in 2015 a campaign started among conservative bloggers for Soleimani to stand for 2017 presidential election.[91] In 2016, he was speculated as a possible candidate,[122][124] however in a statement published on 15 September 2016, he called speculations about his candidacy as "divisive reports by the enemies" and said he will "always remain a simple soldier serving Iran and the Islamic Revolution".[125]

In the summer of 2018, Soleimani and Tehran exchanged public remarks with American President Donald Trump related to Red Sea shipping which heightened tensions between the two countries and their allies in the region.[126]

Masoud Barzani, who is the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iraq, claimed Soleimani supported the US invasion of Iraq as a "great victory" for Iran.[127]

Sanctions

In March 2007, Soleimani was included on a list of Iranian individuals targeted with sanctions in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747.[128] On 18 May 2011, he was sanctioned again by the U.S. along with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials due to his alleged involvement in providing material support to the Syrian government.[46]

In 2007, the U.S. included him in a "Designation of Iranian Entities and Individuals for Proliferation Activities and Support for Terrorism", which forbade U.S. citizens from doing business with him.[50][129] The list, published in the EU's Official Journal on 24 June 2011, also included a Syrian property firm, an investment fund and two other enterprises accused of funding the Syrian government. The list also included Mohammad Ali Jafari and Hossein Taeb.[130]

On 24 June 2011, the Official Journal of the European Union said the three Iranian Revolutionary Guard members now subject to sanctions had been "providing equipment and support to help the Syrian government suppress protests in Syria".[131] The Iranians added to the EU sanctions list were two Revolutionary Guard commanders, Soleimani, Mohammad Ali Jafari, and the Guard's deputy commander for intelligence, Hossein Taeb.[132] Soleimani was also sanctioned by the Swiss government in September 2011 on the same grounds cited by the European Union.[133]

On 13 November 2018, the U.S. sanctioned an Iraqi military leader named Shibl Muhsin 'Ubayd Al-Zaydi and others who allegedly were acting on Soleimani's behalf in financing military actions in Syria or otherwise providing support for terrorism in the region.[134]

Public image in Iran

Iranian propaganda

Soleimani cultivated public relations and a personality cult that formed part of his image.[135][136][137] After his death, the Iranian propaganda campaign intensified efforts in coordinating positive international public opinion toward Soleimani. These efforts included using state-run TV channels and several social media accounts, a large proportion of which had newly been created, and posting images such as heroic, "noble warrior" depictions of Soleimani, appealing to both nationalists and religious conservatives.[138][139][140][141][142][143][144] It is believed by many that these measures have been at least partially successful, arguing that even some American outlets were biased.[145][146][147][148]

Popularity in Iran

According to a poll conducted in collaboration with IranPoll for the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, by October 2019 Soleimani was viewed favorably by 82% of Iranians with 59% of them very favorable toward him.[29] He was often considered the second most powerful person and general in Iran, behind Ayatollah Khamenei.[16][17][149] Since the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88), in which Iran was attacked by Saddam Hussein's Iraq and also felt attacked by other countries which sided with Iraq,[150] including the U.S., which supplied weapons and intelligence to Iraq,[151] Soleimani had developed into an architect of Iran's foreign policies in the Middle East[16][152][153] and a key figure behind Iran's foreign and defence policies.[16]

Following the downing of Flight 752 and the Mahsa Protest, his popularity experienced a swift decline as his involvement in the crackdown and killing of protesters in the past decade and other war crimes came to light.[154][155][156] Consequently, after his assassination, people began to humorously refer to him as "Kotelt" (a Persian term for "cutlet"), drawing a connection between his smashed and mutilated body after the drone strike and the minced meat used in making cutlets.[157][158]

Assassination

Main article: Assassination of Qasem Soleimani
 
Qasem Soleimani (left) with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at a 2017 ceremony commemorating the father of Soleimani, in Mosalla, Tehran

Soleimani was assassinated on 3 January 2020 around 1:00 a.m. local time (22:00 UTC 2 January),[159] by a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport.[160][161] BBC News, NBC News, DW News, Time, The Guardian and other media outlets have said Soleimani was assassinated or described the killing as an assassination.[9][162][163][164][165] Senior officials of the U.S. Department of State compared it to Operation Vengeance in World War II, when American pilots shot down the plane carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto[166] – a comparison concurred with by The New York Times[167] and other prominent media and pundits.[168][169][170]

Soleimani was on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and had just left his plane, which arrived in Iraq from Lebanon or Syria.[171][172] Adil Abdul Mahdi said Soleimani was bringing Iran's response to a letter that Iraq had sent out on behalf of Saudi Arabia in order to ease tensions between the two countries in the region. The prime minister did not reveal the message's exact content.[173] Also assassinated were four members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi military commander who headed the PMF.[174] Soleimani's body was identified using a ring he wore on his finger.[175]

Soleimani was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General[9] and praised as a martyr by speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani[176] and Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the IRGC.[177] Soleimani was succeeded by Esmail Ghaani as commander of the Quds Force.[178]

According to the Iranian Students News Agency quoting the Iraqi Al-Ahd network, there are diverse narratives concerning the drones which assassinated Qasim-Soleimani (and Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis). A narrative mentions about the American drones which took-off from Kuwait land, and entered Iraq and did the mentioned operation, on the other hand, the headquarters of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces denied the news after a few hours. The second news says that an American UAV rises from the Al-Adeed base in Qatar and do the mentioned assassination-operation.[179] Also, according to Ahmed al-Asadi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament: "The drones which carried out the assassination-operation, were 3 American UAVs that took-off from the military-base of "Ain al-Assad" and flew in the sky of Baghdad for 20 hours on Thursday morning and then came back directly to the "Ain al-Assad" base after carrying out the assassination operation."[180] According to Radio-Farda quoting American-media, the drones which did the assassination were from the type of "MQ-9 Reaper".[181]

U.S. decision-making

CNBC reported that the U.S. had been in pursuit of the general for decades.[182] President Trump had expressed a desire to target Soleimani in a 2017 meeting with then National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.[183][184] On 13 January 2020, five senior current and former Trump administration officials told NBC News that President Trump had authorized the killing of Soleimani in June 2019 on the condition that he had been involved in the killing of many Americans, a decision backed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.[183][184] In making the 2020 strike, the Pentagon focused on Soleimani's past actions and on deterring future such actions.[185] The strike followed attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad by supporters of an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia and the 2019 K-1 Air Base attack.[186] Anonymous officials told The New York Times that Trump had initially decided to strike at the Shia militia, but instead chose the most extreme option proposed (killing Soleimani) after seeing television footage of the attack on the embassy.[167] The death of an Iraqi-American contractor in a rocket attack in December 2019 was reportedly also used as justification for the strike,[183][184] contradicting the Trump administration's claim that Soleimani was targeted because he was plotting "imminent" attacks on Americans and had to be targeted in order to stop these attacks.[166][183][184]

The U.S. Defense Department said the strike was carried out "at the direction of the President" and asserted that Soleimani had been planning further attacks on American diplomats and military personnel and had approved the attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad in response to U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on 29 December 2019, and that the strike was meant to deter future attacks.[187][188] As part of the administration's changing justification for the strike, a national security adviser asserted that Soleimani had intended further attacks on American diplomats and troops,[189] and Mark Esper asserted the general had been expected to mastermind an attack within days.[190] Trump stated in a Fox News interview that four embassies, including the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, had been targeted; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was not known where or when the attacks would have taken place.[191]

Legal status of the assassination

The strike was not approved by the U.S. Congress or consented to by the Iraqi government, leading to controversy regarding the legality of killing an Iranian military leader over Iraqi airspace.[192]

An arrest warrant was issued by an Iraqi court for President Donald Trump in connection with the killing of Soleimani. The arrest warrant was for a charge of premeditated murder, which carries the death penalty on conviction.[193]

Under U.S. law

On 14 February 2020, in a legally required unclassified memorandum to Congress,[194] the Trump administration said it was authorized under both the Constitution and the 2002 Authorization of Use of Military Force Against Iraq.

However, the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Engel said "The 2002 authorization was passed to deal with Saddam Hussein. This law had nothing to do with Iran or Iranian government officials in Iraq. To suggest that 18 years later this authorization could justify killing an Iranian official stretches the law far beyond anything Congress ever intended," adding that he "looked forward" to Pompeo testifying in a 28 February hearing.[195]

Under international law

The United States, as a member of the United Nations, has ratified the Charter of the United Nations and, therefore, is bound by its provisions. Agnès Callamard, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Director of Columbia University's Global Freedom of Expression project, researched the alleged legal basis for the killing of Suleimani advanced by the United States government and stated that the Suleimani's killing could have been justified under international law only if it had been a response to an "imminent threat." However, she said that the United States had provided no evidence to support that contention. "Absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the U.S. was unlawful," Ms. Callamard wrote in a report that she presented in July 2020 to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.[196] The Trump administration's February 2020 memorandum to Congress was "remarkably vague and inconsequential as far as a possible imminent threat is concerned," Ms. Callamard wrote in the report. "Even at the most basic level, the U.S. did not demonstrate that striking Suleimani was 'necessary.'"[196]

Callamard also concluded that the killing sets an alarming precedent—it was the first targeted drone killing of a senior foreign government official on the territory of a third country. The world now faced "the very real prospect that states may opt to 'strategically' eliminate high-ranking military officials outside the context of a 'known' war, and seek to justify the killing on the grounds of the target's classification as a 'terrorist' who posed a potential future threat," Callamard said in her report. Also, she noted that scores of countries and many non-state actors now have operational drones, and that drones kill many non-combatants for every person targeted.[196]

Reaction

Further information: Reactions to the assassination of Qasem Soleimani

According to Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing, "the killings of Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis violates international human rights law". She said the U.S. is required to confirm "the individual targeted constituted an imminent threat to others." Callamard also described the killing of other individuals alongside Soleimani as "unlawful"[197] and other scholars argue it violates international law.[198] Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Medea Benjamin (the founder of anti-war advocacy group Code Pink) and Hillary Mann Leverett (a political risk consultant and former director of Iran affairs at the White House's National Security Council) called the assassination of Soleimani "flatly illegal".[199][200]

Analysts Ali Vaez and Iain King and some Twitter users compared the event to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand,[201][202][203] and #Ferdinand and #WWIII began trending on Twitter because of what BBC News called "obvious parallels [...] a single strike bringing existing tensions to boiling point".[204] Some protesters raised concerns that Iraq could become a site of open clashes between Iran and the U.S. following the assassination of Soleimani in Baghdad and Iran's retaliatory missile attacks on U.S. bases.[205]

Democrats, including top 2020 presidential candidates, condemned the killing of Soleimani, arguing that it escalated the conflict with Iran, and risked retaliation or war.[206]

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) praised the killing of Soleimani as a divine intervention, saying it helped jihadists.[207]

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, however, backed the strike, describing the American action as self-defense.[208]

According to a Meta (then Facebook) spokesperson, Instagram and its parent company Meta (then Facebook) are removing posts "that voice support for slain Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani to comply with U.S. sanctions."[209]

In June 2020, Iran placed an arrest warrant for President Donald Trump, with an Iranian prosecutor saying Trump and 35 others "faced murder and terrorism charges" over the killing of Soleimani.[210]

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in a leaked tape that "Soleimani's death caused more damage to the country than if the U.S. wiped out an entire city."[211]

Some activists living out of reach of the Iranian authorities, such as Saghar Erica Kasraie, Reza Alijani, and Masih Alinejad, condemned Soleimani.[212][213][214] Some Iranians mourning for the dead of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 less than a week after his death called him a murderer and tore up his pictures during the protests.[215][216][217] BBC reported that "the protests were, however, far smaller than the mass demonstrations across Iran in support of Soleimani".[216]

Ismail Haniyeh described Soleimani as "the martyr of Jerusalem" in a speech pronounced in Tehran during his funeral.[218][219]

Funeral and burial

Main article: Funeral of Qasem Soleimani
 
Mourners at Azadi Square, Tehran
 
Soleimani's grave. He had asked for a simple gravestone "similar to [his] shahid comrades" and without any honorific title inscribed along his name.[220][221]

On 4 January, a funeral procession for Soleimani was held in Baghdad with thousands of mourners in attendance, waving Iraqi and militia flags[9] and chanting "death to America, death to Israel".[222] The procession started at the Al-Kadhimiya Mosque in Baghdad. Iraq's prime minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and leaders of Iran-backed militias attended the funeral procession.[223] Soleimani's remains were taken to the holy Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf.[224] On 5 January, the remains of the bodies arrived in Ahvaz, and then Mashhad. Tens of thousands of mourners in black clothes attended the funeral procession with green, white, and red flags.[225][226] Muqtada al-Sadr paid a visit to Soleimani's house to express his condolence to his family.[227]

On 6 January, the body of Soleimani and other casualties arrived at the Iranian capital Tehran. Huge crowds, reportedly hundreds of thousands or millions, packed the streets. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who had a close relationship with Soleimani, led the traditional Islamic prayer for the dead, weeping at one point in front of the flag-draped coffins.[228][229] Ali Khamenei mourned openly near the coffin while the general's successor swore revenge. Esmail Ghaani, who was named commander of the Quds Force hours after Soleimani's killing, said: "God the Almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger."[230] Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asked if Trump had ever seen "such a sea of humanity".[231] He was given a multi-city funeral, and his funeral procession was said to be the second largest after that of Ayatollah Khomeini.[232] On 7 January 2020, a stampede took place at the burial procession for Soleimani in Kerman attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners, killing 56 and injuring 212 more.[233][234]

Retaliation

See also: Operation Martyr Soleimani

On 7 January 2020, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran announced that it had drafted a 13 revenge scenarios document.

The next day, the Iranian military responded to Soleimani's death by launching ballistic missiles at two U.S. bases in Iraq,[235][236] resulting in no reported casualties but 100 traumatic brain injuries.[237][238][239] Iranian officials[240] and some Western media analysts suggested the strike was deliberately designed to avoid causing any casualties to avoid an American response.[241][242] The Iranian president cautioned the U.S. that Iran will take more retaliatory actions if the U.S. continues to interfere in the region.[243] After the missile attack on Ayn al-Asad airbase, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shortly after it had taken off. While initial reports suggested that the missile strike was a result of a mistake, subsequent evidence raised the possibility that the flight might have been intentionally targeted. Some interpretations of the evidence indicated that this action could have been taken to divert public attention towards the US intervention in the region and to prevent potential retaliatory actions from the United States.[244][245][246]

Execution of spy

On 20 July 2020, it was reported by Iranian state television that Mahmoud Mousavi Majd had been executed following his conviction for providing information to the US and Israel about Soleimani and the Quds Force.[247]

Anniversary

 
Commemoration ceremony (anniversary) of "Qasem-Soleimani", in Tehran

On 3 January 2021, the first anniversary was marked of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in Baghdad.[248] Tens of thousands of Iran-back militias marched on the highway leading to the Baghdad airport while chanting anti-American slogans.[249]

There have been held commemoration ceremonies by the name of "Commemoration-Ceremony (Anniversary) of Martyr Qassem-Soleimani" (and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis) in presence and virtually (via web conferencing) in the cities of the Islamic Republic of Iran[250][251][252] and several countries, such as Oman, Iraq, Syria and Portugal.[253][254][255][256][257][258]

According to Fars News Agency, the anniversary of the commemoration of Qasem Soleimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and their colleagues was held with the presence of local and foreign officials in University of Tehran, Iran.[259][260]

On 3 January 2024, an explosion occurred near a cemetery in Kerman, on the 4th anniversary of Soleimani's death. About 89 people were killed and another 284 wounded, in an attack claimed by the ISIL.[261][262]

Cultural depictions and legacy

 
Soleimani behind the scenes of the film 23 People

In 2015, the British magazine The Week featured a cartoon of Soleimani in bed with Uncle Sam, which alluded to both sides' fighting ISIL.[263]

The 2016 movie Bodyguard, directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia, was inspired by Soleimani's activities.[264]

The 2016 Persian book Noble Comrades 17: Hajj Qassem, written by Ali Akbari Mozdabadi, contains memoirs of Qassem Soleimani.[265] In 2017, a computer-animated film, Battle of Persian Gulf II, where Soleimani is portrayed as the hero of the film.[266]

Resalat Expressway in Tehran was renamed "Shahid Sardar Qasem Soleimani" in his honor.[267]

Shortly after his death, various representations of Qasem Soleimani appeared in many wall paintings and propaganda posters in Iran.[268] Since then, his portrait has become more and more an integral part of the iconographic representation of the Islamic Republic.[citation needed]

In August 2020, Iran unveiled a new ballistic missile named Martyr Haj Qasem and a new cruise missile named Martyr Abu Mahdi after Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi commander killed alongside Soleimani.[269][270]

"Shahid Soleimani Plan" (also "Martyr Soleimani Project") is the name of a complementary project to fight SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran,[271][272][273][274] in which more than 17 million households were screened, and this screening has been performed by more than 4.5 million "health ambassadors" in Iran.[275][276][277][278]

During Mahsa Protests, his pictures, banners featuring him, and also his statutes were targeted, burned and crushed by angry protesters as his involvement in the crackdown and killing of protesters in the past decade and other war crimes came to light.[279][280][281]

On 2 October 2023, the AFC called off a match between Iranian side Sepahan and Saudi side Al-Ittihad in Isfahan after Al-Ittihad refused to take the pitch when their requests for a bust of Soleimani to be removed were refused.[282]

Awards and decorations

       
Order of Zolfaghar Order of Fath (1st class) Order of Fath (2nd class) Order of Fath (3rd class)

On 13 January 2020, Syrian Minister of Defense Ali Abdullah Ayyoub presented the medal of "The Champion of the Syrian Arab Republic", which President Bashar al-Assad granted posthumously to Qassem Soleimani, to his Iranian counterpart, Amir Hatami.[283]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c The most widely cited birth date for Soleimani is 11 March 1957. His gravestone states 21 March 1956. At least one later source states 21 March 1958.[31]
  2. ^ Posthumously.[9]
  3. ^ In a 2007 memo, the U.S. State Department listed his birthplace as Qom, Qom Province, instead.[36]

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Bibliography

  • Azizi, Arash (2020). The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US, and Iran's Global Ambitions. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-78607-945-9.

External links

Military offices
New title Commander of the 41st Tharallah Division
1982–1998 		Succeeded by
Abdolmohammad Raufinejad
Preceded by Commander of Quds Force
1998–2020 		Succeeded by

January 01, 1970
qasem, soleimani, some, this, article, listed, sources, reliable, please, help, improve, this, article, looking, better, more, reliable, sources, unreliable, citations, challenged, removed, september, 2023, learn, when, remove, this, template, message, persian. Some of this article s listed sources may not be reliable Please help improve this article by looking for better more reliable sources Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed September 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message Qasem Soleimani Persian قاسم سلیمانی romanized Qasem Soleymani 11 March 1957 note 1 3 January 2020 was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC From 1998 until his assassination by the United States in 2020 he was the commander of the Quds Force an IRGC division primarily responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine military operations and played a key role in the Syrian Civil War through securing Russian intervention 12 He was described as the single most powerful operative in the Middle East and a genius of asymmetric warfare 13 14 unreliable source and former Mossad director Yossi Cohen said Soleimani s strategies had personally tightened a noose around Israel s neck 15 In his later years he was considered by some analysts to be the right hand man of the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei and the second most powerful person in Iran behind Khamenei 16 17 18 SardarQasem SoleimaniSoleimani with the Order of Zolfaghar in 2019Native nameقاسم سلیمانیNickname s Haj Qassem حاج قاسم 1 The Shadow Commander Western 2 3 4 5 6 Born 1957 03 11 11 March 1957 note 1 Qanat e Malek Kerman Province Imperial State of IranDied3 January 2020 2020 01 03 aged 62 7 Baghdad Airport Road Baghdad IraqBuriedKerman Martyrs Cemetery Kerman Iran 8 30 17 31 N 57 07 44 E 30 291984 N 57 128931 E 30 291984 57 128931Allegiance IranService wbr branch Islamic Revolutionary Guard CorpsYears of service1979 2020RankMajor GeneralLieutenant General note 2 Commands held41st Tharallah Division of Kerman Quds ForceBattles wars1979 Kurdish rebellion Iran Iraq War Operation Tariq ol Qods WIA Operation Fath ol Mobin Operation Beit ol Moqaddas Second Battle of Khorramshahr Operation Ramadan Operation Before the Dawn Operation Dawn Operation Dawn 3 Operation Dawn 4 Operation Dawn 5 Operation Dawn 6 Battle of the Marshes Operation Kheibar Operation Badr 1985 First Battle of al Faw Operation Dawn 8 Operation Karbala 1 Operation Karbala 4 Operation Karbala 5 Operation Karbala 6 Operation Karbala 10 Operation Dawn 10 Second Battle of al Faw Operation Mersad KDPI insurgency South Lebanon conflict War in Afghanistan 2001 2021 American invasion of Afghanistan 2001 Herat uprising 2006 Lebanon War Iraq War Karbala provincial headquarters raid Iran Israel proxy conflict Gaza Israel conflict Syrian civil war Battle of al Qusayr Southern Syria offensive Battle of Zabadani Northwestern Syria offensive Latakia offensive Kuweires offensive Battle of Aleppo Southern Aleppo offensive Special forces operation to rescue Russian pilot East Aleppo offensive 2015 16 Northern Aleppo offensive 2016 Encirclement of Aleppo Aleppo offensive September October 2016 Hama offensive March April 2017 Syrian Desert campaign May July 2017 Eastern Syria campaign September December 2017 2017 Abu Kamal offensive War in Iraq 2013 2017 Siege of Amirli Liberation of Jurf Al Sakhar Battle of Baiji Battle of Tikrit Siege of Fallujah Operation Breaking Terrorism 2019 20 Persian Gulf crisis 2020 Baghdad International Airport airstrike AwardsOrder of Zolfaghar 1 10 Order of Fath 3 11 Children6 including Zeinab Soleimani For attacks orchestrated or attempted against American and other targets abroad Soleimani was personally sanctioned by the United Nations and the European Union 19 20 21 and was designated as a terrorist by the United States in 2005 22 23 24 The United States military assassinated Soleimani in a targeted drone strike on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad Iraq Iranian government officials publicly mourned Soleimani s death and launched missiles against U S military bases in Iraq wounding 110 American troops 25 26 Iranian propaganda outlets subsequently represented Soleimani as a national hero 27 28 29 30 Contents 1 Early life 2 Military career 2 1 Command of Quds Force 2 1 1 U S invasion of Afghanistan 2 1 2 Second Intifada and Gaza tunnels 2 1 3 Assistance to the Iraqi insurgency 2 1 4 2006 Lebanon War 2 1 5 Al Qaeda 2 2 Syrian Civil War 2 2 1 Orchestration of military coalition in 2015 2 2 2 Operations in Aleppo 2 3 War against ISIL in Iraq 3 Political career 4 Sanctions 5 Public image in Iran 5 1 Iranian propaganda 5 2 Popularity in Iran 6 Assassination 6 1 U S decision making 6 2 Legal status of the assassination 6 2 1 Under U S law 6 2 2 Under international law 6 3 Reaction 6 4 Funeral and burial 6 5 Retaliation 6 6 Execution of spy 6 7 Anniversary 7 Cultural depictions and legacy 8 Awards and decorations 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Bibliography 13 External linksEarly lifeSoleimani was born on 11 March 1957 note 1 in the village of Qanat e Malek Kerman Province 32 33 34 35 note 3 He left school at the age of 13 and moved to the city of Kerman to work on a construction site to help repay his father s agricultural debts 32 33 37 In 1975 he began working as a contractor for the Kerman Water Organization 32 38 39 When not at work he spent his time with weight training in local gyms or attending the sermons of Hojjat Kamyab a preacher and a protege of Ali Khamenei who according to Soleimani encouraged him to revolutionary activities 2 40 His family is of Lurs descent 41 Military careerSoleimani joined the Revolutionary Guard IRGC in 1979 38 following the Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of the Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini take power Reportedly his training was minimal but he advanced rapidly Early in his career as a guardsman he helped to prevent a Kurdish uprising in northwestern Iran 2 I entered the Iran Iraq War on a fifteen day mission and ended up staying until the end We were all young and wanted to serve the revolution Quoted in Dexter Filkins 30 September 2013 The Shadow Commander The New Yorker On 22 September 1980 when Saddam Hussein launched an invasion of Iran setting off the Iran Iraq War 1980 1988 Soleimani joined the battlefield serving as the leader of a military company consisting of men from Kerman whom he assembled and trained 42 He quickly earned a reputation for bravery 43 and rose through the ranks because of his role in successful operations to retake the lands Iraq had occupied and eventually became the commander of the 41st Tharallah Division while still in his 20s participating in most of the war s battles and major operations He was mostly stationed at the southern front 42 44 He was seriously injured in Operation Tariq ol Qods In a 1990 interview he mentioned Operation Fath ol Mobin as the best operation he participated in and very memorable due to its difficulties yet positive outcome 45 He was also engaged in leading and organizing irregular warfare missions deep inside Iraq by the Ramadan Headquarters clarification needed It was at this point that Soleimani established relations with Kurdish Iraqi leaders and the Shia Badr Organization both opposed to Saddam Hussein 42 On 17 July 1985 Soleimani opposed the IRGC leadership s plan to deploy forces to two islands in western Arvand Rud on the Shatt al Arab River 46 why After the war during the 1990s he was an IRGC commander in Kerman Province 44 In this region which is relatively close to Afghanistan Afghan grown opium travels to Turkey and on to Europe citation needed Soleimani s military experience helped him earn a reputation as a successful fighter against drug trafficking 2 During the 1999 student protests in Tehran Soleimani was one of the IRGC officers who signed a letter to President Mohammad Khatami warning that if he did not suppress the protests the military would and suggesting Khatami would be deposed 2 47 48 According to the former IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari Soleimani also intervened in the 2009 protests to control the insecurity and riots 49 Command of Quds Force nbsp Soleimani receiving the Order of Zolfaghar from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei The exact date of his appointment as commander of the IRGC s Quds Force is not clear but Ali Alfoneh cites it as between 10 September 1997 and 21 March 1998 38 He was considered one of the possible successors to the post of commander of the IRGC when General Yahya Rahim Safavi left this post in 2007 In 2008 he led a group of Iranian investigators looking into the death of Imad Mughniyah Soleimani helped arrange a ceasefire between the Iraqi Army and Mahdi Army in March 2008 50 Following the September 11 attacks in 2001 senior U S State Department official Ryan Crocker flew to Geneva to meet with Iranian diplomats who were under the leadership of Soleimani with the purpose of collaborating to destroy the Taliban 2 This collaboration was instrumental in defining the targets of air bombing operations in Afghanistan and in capturing key Al Qaeda operatives but suddenly ended in January 2002 when President George W Bush named Iran as part of the Axis of evil in his State of the Union address 2 Soleimani strengthened the relationship between Quds Force and Hezbollah upon his appointment and supported the latter by sending in operatives to retake southern Lebanon 2 In an interview aired in October 2019 he said he was in Lebanon during the 2006 Israel Hezbollah War to manage the conflict 51 During the Iraq War the Quds Force oversaw the production and mass smuggling into Iraq of improvised explosively formed penetrator EFP roadside bombs which according to American estimates were used by the Iraqi insurgency to cause 500 deaths and over 21 000 injuries to American soldiers 52 53 54 The Quds Force also planned and orchestrated what is thought to be the boldest and most sophisticated commando raid against U S troops in Iraq the January 2007 Karbala provincial headquarters raid 55 and played a coordinating role in Hezbollah s defense from Israel in the 2006 Lebanon War where Soleimani was personally involved 56 In 2009 The Economist stated on the basis of a leaked report that Christopher R Hill and General Raymond T Odierno America s two most senior officials in Baghdad at the time met with Soleimani in the office of Iraq s president Jalal Talabani but withdrew the story after Hill and Odierno denied the occurrence of the meeting 57 58 59 On 24 January 2011 Soleimani was promoted to Major General Sarlaskar by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei 44 60 61 Khamenei was described as having a close relationship with him calling Soleimani a living martyr and helping him financially 2 Soleimani was described by an ex CIA operative responsible for clandestine operations as the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today and the principal military strategist and tactician in Iran s effort to deter Western influence and promote the expansion of Shia and Iranian influence throughout the Middle East 2 In Iraq as the commander of the Quds Force he was believed to have strongly influenced the organization of the Iraqi government notably supporting the election of previous Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki 2 62 A report issued late January 2020 by government factions close to IRGC and published by Fars News Agency reveals some of Quds force s infiltration under the command of Qassem Soleimani in other countries The 1992 95 Bosnian War is brought as an example 63 U S invasion of Afghanistan In 1998 Soleimani played a role in diffusing the crisis between Iran and the Taliban ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan caused by the 8 August 1998 killing of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan and the 1998 Mazar i Sharif massacre of Hazara Shias by the Taliban While the Commander in Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Yahya Rahim Safavi advocated for an Iranian invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime Soleimani convinced Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that a policy of strategic patience would be more fruitful Soleimani instead tripled Iranian support for the anti Taliban Northern Alliance and his Quds Force ran a secret training camp in Tajikistan for its fighters 64 When the United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 after the September 11 attacks Soleimani s Quds Force collaborated with the U S and led the 2001 uprising in Herat against the Taliban which included the Hazaras Northern Alliance and Quds Force staging an uprising that liberated the city before U S forces came in 65 Second Intifada and Gaza tunnels The Quds Force had cultivated relations with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad since the 1990s under the leadership of Soleimani s predecessor Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi and the 1995 Kfar Darom bus attack 66 Soleimani strengthened these relations during the Second Intifada when he and Hezbollah chief of military operations Imad Mughniyeh oversaw the smuggling of weapons to the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions according to Lebanese militant Anis al Naqqash 67 After the 2007 imposition of a blockade on the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt Soleimani s Quds Force has been active in supporting the further construction of tunnels under Gaza and the smuggling of weapons through these tunnels to the armed wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad In 2021 senior Hamas representative to Lebanon Ahmad Abd al Hadi said The idea of digging tunnels Today there are 360 kilometers of tunnels in Gaza There are more than 360 kilometers of tunnels underground I won t go into details on this Two people came up with the idea of digging these tunnels The first is the martyred commander Imad Mughniyeh and the second is Hajj Qasem Soleimani who went to Gaza more than once and contributed to the defense plan from the moment it was first drafted I am not divulging any secret by the way The enemies know all this but what the enemies do not know is way more than what they do know 68 Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has disclosed the fact that Soleimani was present at the Palestinian Joint Operations Room in Damascus Syria throughout January 2009 overseeing operations against the Israeli Army during the 2008 2009 Gaza War 69 Assistance to the Iraqi insurgency While Iran actively supported the U S effort on the ground in Afghanistan in the closing months of 2001 in his January 2002 State of the Union Address President George W Bush singled out the country as part of an axis of evil along with Saddam Hussein s Iraq Iran s longtime enemy and North Korea After the U S invaded and occupied Iraq in April 2003 the Quds Force under Soleimani supplied insurgents with weapons most notably explosively formed penetrators EFPs or roadside bombs used to devastating effect against coalition forces and Blackwater mercenaries as in the 2004 Fallujah ambush and 2004 Good Friday ambush The Quds Force also helped in the creation and arming of Shia militias such as the Mahdi Army Kata ib Hezbollah and Asa ib Ahl al Haq 70 71 72 On 11 January 2007 the United States raided the Iranian Liaison Office in Erbil Iraq based on false intelligence that IRGC Commander in Chief Mohammad Ali Jafari and Soleimani were there Nine days later on January 20 Qais al Khazali s Asa ib Ahl al Haq militia with the help of Quds Force Brigadier General Abdolreza Shahlaei and Hezbollah operative Ali Musa Daqduq infiltrated the U S Army s Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Headquarters and killed five American soldiers in what has been called the most daring and sophisticated insurgent operation of the Iraq War 73 On the same day twenty more American soldiers were killed by other insurgents throughout Iraq making it the third worst day for U S troops in the entire war 74 75 76 2006 Lebanon War Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has said that Soleimani was instrumental in upgrading Hezbollah s military capabilities since he became head of the Quds Force in 1998 and helping transform Hezbollah into a fighting force capable of not only resisting but also deterring Israel 77 On 12 July 2006 Hezbollah under the operational command of Imad Mughniyeh and Khalid Bazzi launched a cross border raid into Israel killing three IDF soldiers and taking two hostages Israel responded by invading Lebanon Soleimani on that day was in Damascus but went to Beirut under intense Israeli bombing and throughout the course of the war stayed in Dahieh alongside Hezbollah s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and military chief Imad Mughniyeh forming a three man command to supervise all of Hezbollah s operations during the war 78 From the end of the 2006 war Soleimani scrupulously worked on refurbishing Hezbollah s missile force to make it a strike force that would deter Israel from attacking Iran s nuclear facilities Soleimani invested great resources in filling Hezbollah s missile stocks After 2006 Soleimani expended most of his efforts in converting a large part of the Hezbollah missiles into precision missiles To that end Soleimani built an operational technological infrastructure in Syria from which he transferred missiles to Lebanon in convoys When the missiles routes between Syria and Lebanon were uncovered the Quds commander decided to build precision targeting factories for Hezbollah in Lebanon At first the secret facilities were in the Beirut area but when Israel discovered them they were moved to the Baalbek region 79 Al Qaeda According to some sources Soleimani authorized the 12 May 2003 Riyadh compound bombings targeting Saudi and American interests in Riyadh carried out by an al Qaeda cell allegedly operating from Iran with the approval of the Quds Force 80 Saif al Adel and Saad bin Laden were implicated in the attacks 81 According to Seth G Jones the bombings were planned by al Qaeda in Iran with apparent Iranian complicity 82 83 In May 2003 then State Department official Ryan Crocker provided information on the upcoming attack to Iranian officials who apparently took no action 84 However according to an interrogation of former al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith al Adel and Saad were being held prisoner in Iran when the attacks took place 85 Saad was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan in 2009 86 Syrian Civil War See also Syrian Civil War and Iranian involvement in the Syrian civil war We re not like the Americans We don t abandon our friends Attributed to Soleimani by a former Iraqi leader referring to Syria Quoted by Dexter Filkins 2 nbsp Map of Al Qusayr and its environs The Al Qusayr offensive was reportedly orchestrated by Soleimani 2 According to several sources including Riad Hijab a former Syrian premier who deserted in August 2012 Soleimani was one of the strongest supporters of the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad in the Syrian Civil War 2 62 Soleimani was involved in planning and carrying out the Siege of Baba Amr during the Siege of Homs since 2011 according to the Syrian Minister of Defense Ali Abdullah Ayyoub 87 88 In the later half of 2012 Soleimani assumed personal control of the Iranian intervention in the Syrian Civil War when the Iranians became deeply concerned about the Assad government s inability to fight the opposition and the negative consequences to the Islamic Republic if the Syrian government fell He reportedly coordinated the war from a base in Damascus at which a Lebanese Hezbollah commander and an Iraqi Shia militia coordinator were mobilized in addition to Syrian and Iranian officers Under Soleimani the command coordinated attacks trained militias and set up an elaborate system to monitor rebel communications According to a Middle Eastern security official Dexter Filkins talked to thousands of Quds Force and Iraqi Shia militiamen in Syria were spread out across the entire country 2 The retaking of Qusayr in May 2013 from rebel forces and Al Nusra Front 89 was according to John Maguire a former CIA officer in Iraq orchestrated by Soleimani 2 Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani the Basij s former deputy commander helped to run irregular militias that Soleimani hoped would continue the fight if Assad fell 2 Soleimani helped establish the National Defence Forces NDF in 2013 which would formalize the coalition of pro Assad groups 90 Soleimani was much credited in Syria for the strategy that assisted President Bashar al Assad in finally repulsing rebel forces and recapturing key cities and towns 91 He was involved in the training of government allied militias and the coordination of decisive military offensives 2 The sighting of Iranian UAVs in Syria strongly suggested that his command the Quds Force was involved in the civil war 2 In a visit to the Lebanese capital Beirut on 29 January 2015 Soleimani laid wreaths at the graves of the slain Hezbollah members including Jihad Mughniyah which strengthened suspicions about a collaboration between Hezbollah and the Quds Force 92 Orchestration of military coalition in 2015 See also Russia Syria Iran Iraq coalition In 2015 Soleimani began gathering support from various sources to combat the newly resurgent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ISIL and rebel groups which had both successfully taken large swaths of territory from Assad s forces He was reportedly the main architect of the joint intervention involving Russia as a new partner with Assad and Hezbollah 93 94 According to Reuters at a meeting in Moscow in July Soleimani unfurled a map of Syria to explain to his Russian hosts how a series of defeats for President Bashar al Assad could be turned into victory with Russia s help Soleimani s visit to Moscow was the first step in planning for the Russian military intervention that has reshaped the Syrian war and forged a new Iran Russia alliance in support of the Syrian and Iraqi governments Iran s supreme leader Ali Khamenei also sent a senior envoy to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin Putin reportedly told a senior Iranian envoy Okay we will intervene Send Qassem Soleimani General Soleimani went to explain the map of the theatre and coordinate the strategic escalation of military forces in Syria 94 Operations in Aleppo nbsp Map of the 2015 Aleppo offensives 95 96 97 98 99 100 Main article Aleppo offensive October December 2015 Soleimani had a decisive impact on the theater of operations which led to a strong advance in southern Aleppo with the government and allied forces re capturing two military bases and dozens of towns and villages in a matter of weeks There was also a series of major advances towards Kuweiris air base to the north east 101 By mid November the Syrian army and its allies had gained ground in southern areas of Aleppo Governorate capturing numerous rebel strongholds Soleimani was reported to have personally led the drive deep into the southern Aleppo countryside where many towns and villages fell into government hands He reportedly commanded the Syrian Arab Army s 4th Mechanized Division Hezbollah Harakat Al Nujaba Iraqi Kata ib Hezbollah Iraqi Liwaa Abu Fadl Al Abbas Iraqi and Firqa Fatayyemoun Afghan Iranian volunteers 102 In early February 2016 backed by Russian and Syrian air force airstrikes the 4th Mechanized Division in close coordination with Hezbollah the National Defense Forces NDF Kata eb Hezbollah and Harakat Al Nujaba launched an offensive in Aleppo Governorate s northern countryside 103 which eventually broke the three year siege of Nubl and Al Zahraa and cut off the rebels main supply route from Turkey According to a senior non Syrian security source close to Damascus Iranian fighters played a crucial role in the conflict Qassem Soleimani is there in the same area he said 104 In December 2016 new photos emerged of Soleimani at the Citadel of Aleppo though the exact date of the photos is unknown 105 106 In late March 2017 Soleimani was seen in the northern Hama Governorate countryside in Syria reportedly aiding Major General Suheil al Hassan to repel a major rebel offensive 107 War against ISIL in Iraq See also War in Iraq 2013 2017 and Iranian intervention in Iraq 2014 present nbsp A map of Saladin Governorate in Iraq Soleimani was involved in breaking the Siege of Amirli by ISIL in the eastern part of the governorate 108 Soleimani had a significant role in Iran s fight against ISIL in Iraq He was described as the linchpin bringing together Kurdish and Shia forces to fight ISIS overseeing joint operations conducted by the two groups 109 In 2014 Soleimani was in the Iraqi city of Amirli to work with Iraqi forces to push back ISIL militants 110 The Los Angeles Times reported that Amirli was the first town to successfully withstand an ISIL invasion and was secured thanks to an unusual partnership of Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers Iranian backed Shia militias and U S warplanes 111 112 A senior Iraqi official told the BBC that when the city of Mosul fell the rapid reaction of Iran rather than American bombing was what prevented a more widespread collapse 113 Soleimani also seems to have been instrumental in planning the operation to relieve Amirli in Saladin Governorate where ISIL had laid siege to an important city 108 In fact the Quds force operatives under Soleimani s command seem to have been deeply involved not only with the Iraqi army and Shia militias but also with the Kurdish forces in the Battle of Amirli 114 providing liaisons for intelligence sharing along with arms munitions and expertise 115 In the operation to liberate Jurf Al Sakhar he was reportedly present on the battlefield Some Shia militia commanders described Soleimani as fearless one pointing out that the Iranian general never wears a flak jacket even on the front lines 116 In November 2014 Shia and Kurdish forces under Soleimani s command pushed ISIL out of the Iraqi villages of Jalawla and Saadia in the Diyala Governorate 109 117 118 nbsp Soleimani praying in the Syrian desert in 2017 Soleimani played an integral role in the organization and planning of the crucial operation to retake the city of Tikrit in Iraq from ISIL The city of Tikrit rests on the left bank of the Tigris river and is the largest and most important city between Baghdad and Mosul giving it a high strategic value The city fell to ISIL during 2014 when ISIL made immense gains in northern and central Iraq After its capture ISIL s massacre at Camp Speicher led to 1 600 to 1 700 deaths of Iraqi Army cadets and soldiers After months of careful preparation and intelligence gathering an offensive to encircle and capture Tikrit was launched in early March 2015 118 In 2016 photos published by a Popular Mobilization Forces PMF source showed Soleimani attending a meeting of PMF commanders in Iraq to discuss the Battle of Fallujah 119 CIA chief Mike Pompeo said he sent Soleimani and other Iranian leaders a letter holding them responsible for any attacks on U S interests by forces under their control According to Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani a senior aide for Iran s supreme leader Soleimani ignored the letter when it was handed over to him during the Abu Kamal offensive against ISIL saying I will not take your letter nor read it and I have nothing to say to these people 120 121 Political career nbsp Soleimani speaking at International Day of Mosque conference In 1999 Soleimani along with other senior IRGC commanders signed a letter to then President Mohammad Khatami regarding the student protests in July They wrote Dear Mr Khatami how long do we have to shed tears sorrow over the events practice democracy by chaos and insults and have revolutionary patience at the expense of sabotaging the system Dear president if you don t make a revolutionary decision and act according to your Islamic and national missions tomorrow will be so late and irrecoverable that cannot be even imagined 122 Iranian media reported in 2012 that he might be replaced as the commander of Quds Force in order to allow him to run in the 2013 presidential election 123 He reportedly refused to be nominated for the election 122 According to BBC News in 2015 a campaign started among conservative bloggers for Soleimani to stand for 2017 presidential election 91 In 2016 he was speculated as a possible candidate 122 124 however in a statement published on 15 September 2016 he called speculations about his candidacy as divisive reports by the enemies and said he will always remain a simple soldier serving Iran and the Islamic Revolution 125 In the summer of 2018 Soleimani and Tehran exchanged public remarks with American President Donald Trump related to Red Sea shipping which heightened tensions between the two countries and their allies in the region 126 Masoud Barzani who is the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iraq claimed Soleimani supported the US invasion of Iraq as a great victory for Iran 127 SanctionsIn March 2007 Soleimani was included on a list of Iranian individuals targeted with sanctions in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747 128 On 18 May 2011 he was sanctioned again by the U S along with Syrian president Bashar al Assad and other senior Syrian officials due to his alleged involvement in providing material support to the Syrian government 46 In 2007 the U S included him in a Designation of Iranian Entities and Individuals for Proliferation Activities and Support for Terrorism which forbade U S citizens from doing business with him 50 129 The list published in the EU s Official Journal on 24 June 2011 also included a Syrian property firm an investment fund and two other enterprises accused of funding the Syrian government The list also included Mohammad Ali Jafari and Hossein Taeb 130 On 24 June 2011 the Official Journal of the European Union said the three Iranian Revolutionary Guard members now subject to sanctions had been providing equipment and support to help the Syrian government suppress protests in Syria 131 The Iranians added to the EU sanctions list were two Revolutionary Guard commanders Soleimani Mohammad Ali Jafari and the Guard s deputy commander for intelligence Hossein Taeb 132 Soleimani was also sanctioned by the Swiss government in September 2011 on the same grounds cited by the European Union 133 On 13 November 2018 the U S sanctioned an Iraqi military leader named Shibl Muhsin Ubayd Al Zaydi and others who allegedly were acting on Soleimani s behalf in financing military actions in Syria or otherwise providing support for terrorism in the region 134 Public image in IranIranian propaganda Soleimani cultivated public relations and a personality cult that formed part of his image 135 136 137 After his death the Iranian propaganda campaign intensified efforts in coordinating positive international public opinion toward Soleimani These efforts included using state run TV channels and several social media accounts a large proportion of which had newly been created and posting images such as heroic noble warrior depictions of Soleimani appealing to both nationalists and religious conservatives 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 It is believed by many that these measures have been at least partially successful arguing that even some American outlets were biased 145 146 147 148 Popularity in Iran According to a poll conducted in collaboration with IranPoll for the University of Maryland School of Public Policy by October 2019 Soleimani was viewed favorably by 82 of Iranians with 59 of them very favorable toward him 29 He was often considered the second most powerful person and general in Iran behind Ayatollah Khamenei 16 17 149 Since the Iran Iraq War 1980 88 in which Iran was attacked by Saddam Hussein s Iraq and also felt attacked by other countries which sided with Iraq 150 including the U S which supplied weapons and intelligence to Iraq 151 Soleimani had developed into an architect of Iran s foreign policies in the Middle East 16 152 153 and a key figure behind Iran s foreign and defence policies 16 Following the downing of Flight 752 and the Mahsa Protest his popularity experienced a swift decline as his involvement in the crackdown and killing of protesters in the past decade and other war crimes came to light 154 155 156 Consequently after his assassination people began to humorously refer to him as Kotelt a Persian term for cutlet drawing a connection between his smashed and mutilated body after the drone strike and the minced meat used in making cutlets 157 158 AssassinationMain article Assassination of Qasem Soleimani nbsp Qasem Soleimani left with Abu Mahdi al Muhandis at a 2017 ceremony commemorating the father of Soleimani in Mosalla Tehran Soleimani was assassinated on 3 January 2020 around 1 00 a m local time 22 00 UTC 2 January 159 by a U S drone strike near Baghdad International Airport 160 161 BBC News NBC News DW News Time The Guardian and other media outlets have said Soleimani was assassinated or described the killing as an assassination 9 162 163 164 165 Senior officials of the U S Department of State compared it to Operation Vengeance in World War II when American pilots shot down the plane carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto 166 a comparison concurred with by The New York Times 167 and other prominent media and pundits 168 169 170 Soleimani was on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi and had just left his plane which arrived in Iraq from Lebanon or Syria 171 172 Adil Abdul Mahdi said Soleimani was bringing Iran s response to a letter that Iraq had sent out on behalf of Saudi Arabia in order to ease tensions between the two countries in the region The prime minister did not reveal the message s exact content 173 Also assassinated were four members of the Popular Mobilization Forces PMF including Abu Mahdi al Muhandis the Iraqi military commander who headed the PMF 174 Soleimani s body was identified using a ring he wore on his finger 175 Soleimani was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General 9 and praised as a martyr by speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani 176 and Mohsen Rezaei a former commander of the IRGC 177 Soleimani was succeeded by Esmail Ghaani as commander of the Quds Force 178 According to the Iranian Students News Agency quoting the Iraqi Al Ahd network there are diverse narratives concerning the drones which assassinated Qasim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al Muhandis A narrative mentions about the American drones which took off from Kuwait land and entered Iraq and did the mentioned operation on the other hand the headquarters of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces denied the news after a few hours The second news says that an American UAV rises from the Al Adeed base in Qatar and do the mentioned assassination operation 179 Also according to Ahmed al Asadi a member of the Iraqi Parliament The drones which carried out the assassination operation were 3 American UAVs that took off from the military base of Ain al Assad and flew in the sky of Baghdad for 20 hours on Thursday morning and then came back directly to the Ain al Assad base after carrying out the assassination operation 180 According to Radio Farda quoting American media the drones which did the assassination were from the type of MQ 9 Reaper 181 U S decision making CNBC reported that the U S had been in pursuit of the general for decades 182 President Trump had expressed a desire to target Soleimani in a 2017 meeting with then National Security Adviser H R McMaster 183 184 On 13 January 2020 five senior current and former Trump administration officials told NBC News that President Trump had authorized the killing of Soleimani in June 2019 on the condition that he had been involved in the killing of many Americans a decision backed by U S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 183 184 In making the 2020 strike the Pentagon focused on Soleimani s past actions and on deterring future such actions 185 The strike followed attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad by supporters of an Iran backed Iraqi Shia militia and the 2019 K 1 Air Base attack 186 Anonymous officials told The New York Times that Trump had initially decided to strike at the Shia militia but instead chose the most extreme option proposed killing Soleimani after seeing television footage of the attack on the embassy 167 The death of an Iraqi American contractor in a rocket attack in December 2019 was reportedly also used as justification for the strike 183 184 contradicting the Trump administration s claim that Soleimani was targeted because he was plotting imminent attacks on Americans and had to be targeted in order to stop these attacks 166 183 184 The U S Defense Department said the strike was carried out at the direction of the President and asserted that Soleimani had been planning further attacks on American diplomats and military personnel and had approved the attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad in response to U S airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on 29 December 2019 and that the strike was meant to deter future attacks 187 188 As part of the administration s changing justification for the strike a national security adviser asserted that Soleimani had intended further attacks on American diplomats and troops 189 and Mark Esper asserted the general had been expected to mastermind an attack within days 190 Trump stated in a Fox News interview that four embassies including the U S embassy in Baghdad had been targeted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was not known where or when the attacks would have taken place 191 Legal status of the assassination The strike was not approved by the U S Congress or consented to by the Iraqi government leading to controversy regarding the legality of killing an Iranian military leader over Iraqi airspace 192 An arrest warrant was issued by an Iraqi court for President Donald Trump in connection with the killing of Soleimani The arrest warrant was for a charge of premeditated murder which carries the death penalty on conviction 193 Under U S law On 14 February 2020 in a legally required unclassified memorandum to Congress 194 the Trump administration said it was authorized under both the Constitution and the 2002 Authorization of Use of Military Force Against Iraq However the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Engel said The 2002 authorization was passed to deal with Saddam Hussein This law had nothing to do with Iran or Iranian government officials in Iraq To suggest that 18 years later this authorization could justify killing an Iranian official stretches the law far beyond anything Congress ever intended adding that he looked forward to Pompeo testifying in a 28 February hearing 195 Under international law The United States as a member of the United Nations has ratified the Charter of the United Nations and therefore is bound by its provisions Agnes Callamard United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions and Director of Columbia University s Global Freedom of Expression project researched the alleged legal basis for the killing of Suleimani advanced by the United States government and stated that the Suleimani s killing could have been justified under international law only if it had been a response to an imminent threat However she said that the United States had provided no evidence to support that contention Absent an actual imminent threat to life the course of action taken by the U S was unlawful Ms Callamard wrote in a report that she presented in July 2020 to the U N Human Rights Council in Geneva 196 The Trump administration s February 2020 memorandum to Congress was remarkably vague and inconsequential as far as a possible imminent threat is concerned Ms Callamard wrote in the report Even at the most basic level the U S did not demonstrate that striking Suleimani was necessary 196 Callamard also concluded that the killing sets an alarming precedent it was the first targeted drone killing of a senior foreign government official on the territory of a third country The world now faced the very real prospect that states may opt to strategically eliminate high ranking military officials outside the context of a known war and seek to justify the killing on the grounds of the target s classification as a terrorist who posed a potential future threat Callamard said in her report Also she noted that scores of countries and many non state actors now have operational drones and that drones kill many non combatants for every person targeted 196 Reaction Further information Reactions to the assassination of Qasem Soleimani According to Agnes Callamard the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing the killings of Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al Muhandis violates international human rights law She said the U S is required to confirm the individual targeted constituted an imminent threat to others Callamard also described the killing of other individuals alongside Soleimani as unlawful 197 and other scholars argue it violates international law 198 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Medea Benjamin the founder of anti war advocacy group Code Pink and Hillary Mann Leverett a political risk consultant and former director of Iran affairs at the White House s National Security Council called the assassination of Soleimani flatly illegal 199 200 Analysts Ali Vaez and Iain King and some Twitter users compared the event to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 201 202 203 and Ferdinand and WWIII began trending on Twitter because of what BBC News called obvious parallels a single strike bringing existing tensions to boiling point 204 Some protesters raised concerns that Iraq could become a site of open clashes between Iran and the U S following the assassination of Soleimani in Baghdad and Iran s retaliatory missile attacks on U S bases 205 Democrats including top 2020 presidential candidates condemned the killing of Soleimani arguing that it escalated the conflict with Iran and risked retaliation or war 206 The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ISIL praised the killing of Soleimani as a divine intervention saying it helped jihadists 207 UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab however backed the strike describing the American action as self defense 208 According to a Meta then Facebook spokesperson Instagram and its parent company Meta then Facebook are removing posts that voice support for slain Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani to comply with U S sanctions 209 In June 2020 Iran placed an arrest warrant for President Donald Trump with an Iranian prosecutor saying Trump and 35 others faced murder and terrorism charges over the killing of Soleimani 210 Iran s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in a leaked tape that Soleimani s death caused more damage to the country than if the U S wiped out an entire city 211 Some activists living out of reach of the Iranian authorities such as Saghar Erica Kasraie Reza Alijani and Masih Alinejad condemned Soleimani 212 213 214 Some Iranians mourning for the dead of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 less than a week after his death called him a murderer and tore up his pictures during the protests 215 216 217 BBC reported that the protests were however far smaller than the mass demonstrations across Iran in support of Soleimani 216 Ismail Haniyeh described Soleimani as the martyr of Jerusalem in a speech pronounced in Tehran during his funeral 218 219 Funeral and burial Main article Funeral of Qasem Soleimani nbsp Mourners at Azadi Square Tehran nbsp Soleimani s grave He had asked for a simple gravestone similar to his shahid comrades and without any honorific title inscribed along his name 220 221 On 4 January a funeral procession for Soleimani was held in Baghdad with thousands of mourners in attendance waving Iraqi and militia flags 9 and chanting death to America death to Israel 222 The procession started at the Al Kadhimiya Mosque in Baghdad Iraq s prime minister Adil Abdul Mahdi and leaders of Iran backed militias attended the funeral procession 223 Soleimani s remains were taken to the holy Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf 224 On 5 January the remains of the bodies arrived in Ahvaz and then Mashhad Tens of thousands of mourners in black clothes attended the funeral procession with green white and red flags 225 226 Muqtada al Sadr paid a visit to Soleimani s house to express his condolence to his family 227 On 6 January the body of Soleimani and other casualties arrived at the Iranian capital Tehran Huge crowds reportedly hundreds of thousands or millions packed the streets Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who had a close relationship with Soleimani led the traditional Islamic prayer for the dead weeping at one point in front of the flag draped coffins 228 229 Ali Khamenei mourned openly near the coffin while the general s successor swore revenge Esmail Ghaani who was named commander of the Quds Force hours after Soleimani s killing said God the Almighty has promised to get his revenge and God is the main avenger 230 Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asked if Trump had ever seen such a sea of humanity 231 He was given a multi city funeral and his funeral procession was said to be the second largest after that of Ayatollah Khomeini 232 On 7 January 2020 a stampede took place at the burial procession for Soleimani in Kerman attended by hundreds of thousands of mourners killing 56 and injuring 212 more 233 234 Retaliation See also Operation Martyr Soleimani On 7 January 2020 the Supreme National Security Council of Iran announced that it had drafted a 13 revenge scenarios document The next day the Iranian military responded to Soleimani s death by launching ballistic missiles at two U S bases in Iraq 235 236 resulting in no reported casualties but 100 traumatic brain injuries 237 238 239 Iranian officials 240 and some Western media analysts suggested the strike was deliberately designed to avoid causing any casualties to avoid an American response 241 242 The Iranian president cautioned the U S that Iran will take more retaliatory actions if the U S continues to interfere in the region 243 After the missile attack on Ayn al Asad airbase Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC shortly after it had taken off While initial reports suggested that the missile strike was a result of a mistake subsequent evidence raised the possibility that the flight might have been intentionally targeted Some interpretations of the evidence indicated that this action could have been taken to divert public attention towards the US intervention in the region and to prevent potential retaliatory actions from the United States 244 245 246 Execution of spy On 20 July 2020 it was reported by Iranian state television that Mahmoud Mousavi Majd had been executed following his conviction for providing information to the US and Israel about Soleimani and the Quds Force 247 Anniversary nbsp Commemoration ceremony anniversary of Qasem Soleimani in Tehran On 3 January 2021 the first anniversary was marked of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al Muhandis in Baghdad 248 Tens of thousands of Iran back militias marched on the highway leading to the Baghdad airport while chanting anti American slogans 249 There have been held commemoration ceremonies by the name of Commemoration Ceremony Anniversary of Martyr Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al Muhandis in presence and virtually via web conferencing in the cities of the Islamic Republic of Iran 250 251 252 and several countries such as Oman Iraq Syria and Portugal 253 254 255 256 257 258 According to Fars News Agency the anniversary of the commemoration of Qasem Soleimani Abu Mahdi al Muhandis and their colleagues was held with the presence of local and foreign officials in University of Tehran Iran 259 260 On 3 January 2024 an explosion occurred near a cemetery in Kerman on the 4th anniversary of Soleimani s death About 89 people were killed and another 284 wounded in an attack claimed by the ISIL 261 262 Cultural depictions and legacy nbsp Soleimani behind the scenes of the film 23 People In 2015 the British magazine The Week featured a cartoon of Soleimani in bed with Uncle Sam which alluded to both sides fighting ISIL 263 The 2016 movie Bodyguard directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia was inspired by Soleimani s activities 264 The 2016 Persian book Noble Comrades 17 Hajj Qassem written by Ali Akbari Mozdabadi contains memoirs of Qassem Soleimani 265 In 2017 a computer animated film Battle of Persian Gulf II where Soleimani is portrayed as the hero of the film 266 Resalat Expressway in Tehran was renamed Shahid Sardar Qasem Soleimani in his honor 267 Shortly after his death various representations of Qasem Soleimani appeared in many wall paintings and propaganda posters in Iran 268 Since then his portrait has become more and more an integral part of the iconographic representation of the Islamic Republic citation needed In August 2020 Iran unveiled a new ballistic missile named Martyr Haj Qasem and a new cruise missile named Martyr Abu Mahdi after Abu Mahdi al Muhandis the Iraqi commander killed alongside Soleimani 269 270 Shahid Soleimani Plan also Martyr Soleimani Project is the name of a complementary project to fight SARS CoV 2 during the COVID 19 pandemic in Iran 271 272 273 274 in which more than 17 million households were screened and this screening has been performed by more than 4 5 million health ambassadors in Iran 275 276 277 278 During Mahsa Protests his pictures banners featuring him and also his statutes were targeted burned and crushed by angry protesters as his involvement in the crackdown and killing of protesters in the past decade and other war crimes came to light 279 280 281 On 2 October 2023 the AFC called off a match between Iranian side Sepahan and Saudi side Al Ittihad in Isfahan after Al Ittihad refused to take the pitch when their requests for a bust of Soleimani to be removed were refused 282 Awards and decorations nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp Order of Zolfaghar Order of Fath 1st class Order of Fath 2nd class Order of Fath 3rd class On 13 January 2020 Syrian Minister of Defense Ali Abdullah Ayyoub presented the medal of The Champion of the Syrian Arab Republic which President Bashar al Assad granted posthumously to Qassem Soleimani to his Iranian counterpart Amir Hatami 283 See also nbsp Iran portal nbsp Biography portal Haj Qasem missile List of assassinations by the United States List of Iranian two star generals since 1979 List of Iranian commanders in the Iran Iraq War List of commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Mohsen HojajiNotes a b c The most widely cited birth date for Soleimani is 11 March 1957 His gravestone states 21 March 1956 At least one later source states 21 March 1958 31 Posthumously 9 In a 2007 memo the U S State Department listed his birthplace as Qom Qom Province instead 36 References Qassem Suleimani not Just a Commander Taking a Closer Look at Religious Character of Iranian General abna24 10 March 2015 Archived from the original on 10 October 2017 Retrieved 14 July 2016 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Filkins Dexter 30 September 2013 The Shadow Commander The New Yorker Archived from the original on 28 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SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE Secretary Esper said that Soleimani was developing plans to attack diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region and so this is a defensive strike QUESTION The decision to take Soleimani out wasn t necessarily a way of removing this threat that you were talking about in these different countries and these different facilities but it s a way to mitigate it in the future SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL THREE It slows it down It makes it less likely It s shooting down Yamamoto in 1942 a b Cooper Helene Schmitt Eric Haberman Maggie Callimachi Rukmini 4 January 2020 As Tensions With Iran Escalated Trump Opted for Most Extreme Measure The New York Times Archived from the original on 6 January 2020 Retrieved 4 January 2020 Ian W Toll Before Soleimani there was Yamamoto But the history is very different 12 January 2020 Washington Post retrieved 26 September 2020 The U S military s targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani was not unprecedented A famous antecedent occurred during World War II when U S forces targeted a senior Japanese admiral by shooting down his aircraft in the South Pacific Lately the episode has been mentioned amid the debate over justifications of the Soleimani strike Michael O Hanlon Senior Fellow and Director of Research for Brookings Foreign Policy quoted in Around the halls Experts react to the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani 3 January 2020 Brookings Institution Killing him was more akin to shooting down the plane of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto in World War II than attacking a civilian leader retrieved 26 September 2021 Lowry Rich Where Does Admiral Yamamoto Go to Get His Apology in Politics amp Policy 6 January 2020 National Review retrieved 26 September 2020 Before there was Qasem Soleimani there was Admiral Yamamoto If it was wrong to kill Soleimani it was wrong to kill Yamamoto just as barbaric and illegal just as damnable an assassination US kills Iran s most powerful general in 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Challenges to Rapprochement Bloomberg 3 October 2023 العماد أيوب يقدم وسام بطل الجمهورية الممنوح من الرئيس الأسد للشهيد سليماني لوزير الدفاع الإيراني S a N A in Arabic 13 January 2020 Archived from the original on 14 January 2020 Retrieved 14 January 2020 BibliographyAzizi Arash 2020 The Shadow Commander Soleimani the US and Iran s Global Ambitions Oneworld Publications ISBN 978 1 78607 945 9 External linksQasem Soleimani at Wikipedia s sister projects nbsp Media from Commons nbsp News from Wikinews nbsp Quotations from Wikiquote nbsp Data from Wikidata David Ignatius At the Tip of Iran s Spear Washington Post 8 June 2008 Martin Chulov Qassem Suleimani the Iranian general secretly running Iraq The Guardian 28 July 2011 Dexter Filkins The Shadow Commander The New Yorker 30 September 2013 Ali Mamouri The Enigma of Qasem Soleimani And His Role in Iraq Al Monitor 13 October 2013 BBC Radio 4 Profile Military offices New title Commander of the 41st Tharallah Division1982 1998 Succeeded byAbdolmohammad Raufinejad Preceded byAhmad Vahidi Commander of Quds Force1998 2020 Succeeded byEsmail Ghaani Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Qasem Soleimani amp oldid 1220380404, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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