Qassim Soleimani was the most influential Iranian in the Middle East until he met an early death by an airstrike ordered by President Trump.
The Iranian general was Iran’s foreign operations mastermind, using subterfuge and covert operations to secure Iranian influence from Tehran to Lebanon. As the head of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force, Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops, the entrenchment of Iranian influence in Iraqi politics, and helping keep Syrian President Bashar Assad in power.
“The death of Soleimani is devastating to the regime. No man is irreplaceable, but he comes close given his two decades of operational experience and regional dominance,” Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner.
In a Twitter post, Dubowitz said Soleimani’s death would be bigger than that of Osama bin Laden and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
Iran’s “shadow commander” began his military career during the bloody Iran-Iraq war, a nearly decadelong bloody conflict that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands on both sides. He took control of the Quds Force in 1998, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps special operations unit tasked with spreading Iran’s ideology and influence across the Middle East.
Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Soleimani and his unit supported Iraq’s Shiite Muslim insurgency. Iran provided the particularly lethal explosively formed penetrators to insurgent groups, a weapon which was capable of penetrating U.S. armor. The Pentagon has attributed at least 500 deaths to Iranian influence during this time.
After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, Iran became heavily invested in supporting Assad, one its key allies in the region. In 2012, Soleimani reportedly took over Iran’s forces in the country and helped direct operations in conjunction with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization. He is also reported to have played a key part in coordinating with Russian forces in 2015.
Soleimani later moved on to Iraq, helping support Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces in their fight against Iraq. He reportedly played a direct role in the battle to retake Jurf Al Sakhar in 2014, a key city just south of the capital of Baghdad.
Thanks to his escapades across the Middle East, Soleimani was part of a cult of personality among his followers. Troops on battlefields would swarm to take selfies with him. He even had a music video made in his honor.
With Iran steadily increasing its operations against U.S. interests over the past year, there has been some concern that the loss of a figure such as Soleimani could lead to retaliation. But Dubowitz said that would be a dangerous move.
“If Iran retaliates, and there’s ample opportunities for them to do so, they must now appreciate that they are facing a president willing to use all instruments of national power,” he said. “They thought he was a Twitter tiger; he’s proven otherwise.”
Trump reportedly made the decision to take out Soleimani after a violent protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The so-called protesters are believed to have been members of the Iranian-backed PMF units.
Soleimani had been put on notice by the Pentagon hours before his death. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley warned on Thursday that the U.S. is prepared to retaliate against further aggression.
“The game has changed, and we’re prepared to do what is necessary to defend our personnel and our interests and our partners in the region,” Esper said.
Milley warned any future embassy attackers would “run into a buzz saw.”
