Iran’s Deadly ’Shadow Commander’ General Qasem Soleimani Killed in U.S. Attack: A Major Thorn in America’s Side for Decades

In the early hours of January 3rd, 2020, the convoy of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was struck by American aircraft near Baghdad International Airport alongside four leaders of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces. The attack was, according to the U.S. Department of Defence, carried out ‘at the directly of the [U.S.] President,’ and followed allegations of strikes by Iranian aligned Iraqi militias on American targets in Iraq. The U.S. Congress was notified before the attack took place, which was reportedly not the first time the general had been targeted. Soleimani had been a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) since its foundation, and led a company in the Iran-Iraq War at a time when the Western Bloc was strongly supporting Iraq. He gained a reputation for efficiency in combat and quickly rose through the ranks of the corps. Soleimani was appointed as commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force in the late 1990s, and this branch was responsible for unconventional warfare operations across the Middle East including operations alongside Hezbollah against Israel and support for Syrian forces against Islamist militant groups. The General was reportedly present in Lebanon at a Hezbollah command centre in 2006, overseeing the militia’s successful operations against the Israeli Defence Force and the first and only military defeat in Israeli history. 

Soleimani was subsequently promoted to Major General by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and would lead Quds Force operations throughout the 2010s at a time of growing regional conflict and Iranian overseas involvement. Described in the U.S. as ‘the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today,’ or otherwise as ‘Iran’s very own Erwin Rommel,’ the general played an instrumental part in supporting the allied Syrian and Iraqi war efforts against Islamist insurgent groups - many of which were Western backed. Amid mounting losses faced by the Syrian Arab Army to jihadist groups, Soleimani was dispatched to the country to assume personal control of Iranian assets in the theatre including Iranian armed militias. These were key to ensuring the Syrian government’s survival. Operations were closely coordinated with Hezbollah, which intervened in the conflict in support of Damascus from 2013. Other than North Korea, these Iranian backed forces provided the only support for Syria's war effort at this time.

According to former CIA officer John Maguire, General Soleimani had played a key role in a number of Syrian and allied victories including the retaking of Qusayr from Al Qaeda linked militants. The General was a leading coordinator of the war effort, overseeing the training of new militias and playing a central role in coordinating a joint offensive with Syria and Russia from September 2015 after Moscow turned the tide of the war with its own military intervention. Soleimani was lightly wounded by militants in Syria in 2015, but went on to personally oversee operations alongside Syrian, Korean and Russian forces to recapture Aleppo from jihadist forces the following year. Soleimani at the same time oversaw the expansion of Iranian influence in Iraq, coordinating attacks by Iranian backed militias alongside government forces to contain and eventually push back against Islamic State jihadist militants.

The killing of Soleimani represents one of the most significant victories of the Untied States and the Western Bloc in the Middle East in recent years, and marks the removal of a major thorn from the side of Western operations in the Middle East. Having overseen not only Hezbollah’s victory over Western backed Israeli forces in 2006, but also played a central role in undermining U.S. influence in Iraq and, perhaps most significantly, coordinating the Syrian war effort against Western backed militants in the country, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force has hindered Western designs for the Middle East for several decades, and particularly during the 2010s. How Iran will respond to the general's loss, and whether the IRGC’s other commanders will be able to carry out his role with similar effectiveness, remains to be seen.