Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani as commander after the latter was killed in a targeted operation by the United States in 2020.
Esmail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, was killed during an Israeli strike in Iran, The New York Timesreported on Friday evening, citing an Iranian source.
Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani as commander after the latter was killed in a targeted operation by the United States in 2020.
Israeli strikes on Friday morning dealt a major blow to Iran’s chain of command by killing three of its top generals, according to Iranian state media and officials.
The Israeli military confirmed the deaths of the three Iranian commanders. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, moved swiftly to replace the military leaders in an apparent bid to project stability and prevent a power vacuum. Iranian state media reported that Ayatollah Khamenei had appointed replacements for the army’s chief of staff and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — both of whom were killed in the wave of strikes. At least one other top general was killed, according to the Israeli military, a claim that Iran did not immediately comment on.
Two scientists who played leading roles in Iran’s nuclear development were also killed on Friday, according to Iranian state media.
Who was Qaani
Was an Iranian brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who served as the commander of its Quds Force, an IRGC elite special operations force responsible for extraterritorial operations, from 2020 to 2025. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, appointed Qaani to succeed Qasem Soleimani as commander of the Quds Force, after Soleimani’s assassination in January 2020.
Following the assassination of former Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, reports in Lebanon and Iran claimed that Qaani (67) was the man who revealed to Israeli Mossad the exact location of Nasrallah. Qaani was reportedly interrogated in Iran over the issue.
In October 2024, Qaani was thought to have been killed or injured along with Hashem Safieddine in the October 2024 Dahieh airstrike