Iran’s Quds Force leader Esmail Qaani missing since Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on Friday
Reportedly, Esmail Qaani, the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, has gone missing following Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on Friday. Despite remaining unconfirmed by Iranian media, reports from Turkish and Israeli news sources suggest that Qaani may have died.
According to reports, the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburb Dahiyeh were targeted at Hashem Safieddine, the successor to slain Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Safieddine has also been reportedly unreachable after the strikes.
According to the Israeli N12 news, the Iranian brigadier-general was present in Dahiyeh at the time and could have been wounded in the Israeli strike. Another Israeli news outlet Channel 12 claimed that Lebanese authorities confirmed Qaani’s death, though the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have not claimed the killing of the Iranian commander.
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Who is Esmail Qaani?
Esmail Qaani took over from Qassem Soleimani as Iran’s head of foreign operations. Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020 by a US drone near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.
Qaani, aged 67, hails from Mashhad, a traditional Shi’ite Muslim city located in northeastern Iran. He served in the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
After the US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020 killed his predecessor Qassem Soleimani, Tehran appointed Qaani as the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ international military intelligence service.
Those who know Qaani and Soleimani, along with Western experts, believe that Esmail Qaani doesn’t elicit the same level of respect as Soleimani or have as strong ties with Iran’s allies in the Arab world.
