Qassem Soleimani

Biography

Major General Qassem Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force — the external operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — and the most powerful military figure in the Middle East outside of official state armies. In Syria, Soleimani served as Iran's on-the-ground strategic coordinator, flying personally to Damascus in the early days of the war to assess Assad's vulnerability and orchestrating the deployment of thousands of Iranian-backed fighters: Afghan Hazara Fatemiyoun, Pakistani Zainabiyoun, Iraqi Badr Organization, and Hezbollah units. He reportedly persuaded Putin personally to intervene militarily in 2015 after flying to Moscow for a secret meeting. Soleimani's Syria strategy was both military and demographic: besides defending Assad, Iran sought to entrench Shia-aligned communities along a corridor from Tehran to the Mediterranean, establishing influence that would survive any political settlement. He was filmed on the ground in numerous Syrian battles and became a revered figure in Iran, appearing in propaganda as the conquering general of the anti-ISIS campaign. His assassination by a US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020 — ordered by President Trump — removed the single most effective architect of Iranian regional influence and prompted Iran to launch missile strikes on US bases in Iraq in retaliation.

Key Battles