Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani

The U.S. has killed Iran’s top military leader General Qassem Soleimani – head of the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – in a drone strike in Iraq

Mar 11, 1957: Soleimani born to impoverished family in Iran’s southeastern Kerman Province

1978: During Iranian revolution, Soleimani begins his ascent through Iranian military

1980-88: Soleimani emerges from Iran-Iraq war as national hero for clandestine missions he leads behind enemy lines

1998: Khamenei makes Soleimani head of IRGC’s Quds Force

2006: Soleimani acts as strategic adviser to Hezbollah in Lebanon during 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war

2011: Soleimani orders Iraqi-based militias into Syria to defend government of Bashar al-Assad

2014: Soleimani takes leading role, deploying Quds Force and Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces to fight alongside Iraq’s military against Islamic State group

Nov 2015: Quds Force conducts successful rescue mission of Russian bomber pilot shot down by Turkish fighter jet

Jan 3, 2020: Soleimani is killed in U.S. airstrike at Baghdad’s airport. Pentagon says attack was carried out “at the direction” of President Donald Trump

Soleimani was considered Iran’s second most influential leader behind Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and a potential future leader of Iran


General Qassem Soleimani (main picture), Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (inset left), Abu Mahdi al Muhandis (inset right), deputy commander of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (Hashed al-Shaabi), who was also killed in attack

Sources: Asharq Al-Awsat, Reuters, New York Times
Pictures: Getty Images