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Quashing rumours he was killed in Lebanon, chief of Iran’s Quds Force commemorates Gaza genocide

October 8, 2024 at 1:22 pm

Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, Esmail Qaani in Tehran, December 20, 2022 [Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images]

Chief Commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Esmail Qaani, issued a message to commemorate one year since Israel launched its brutal attack on Gaza. This comes amidst claims that he was killed in an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

The Iranian Students’ News Agency (IRNA) explained that the commander could not attend “due to his being in another important meeting”.

Yesterday, the force’s Deputy Commander Iraj Masjedi said Qaani was in good health, after two Iranian security sources told Reuters he had been out of contact since strikes on Beirut last week.

“He is in good health and is carrying out his activities. Some ask us to issue a statement… there is no need for this,” Masjedi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.

One of the security officials told Reuters that Qaani was in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, during a strike last week that was reported to have targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine. The official said he was not meeting Safieddine.

Tehran named Qaani the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ overseas military-intelligence service after the United States assassinated his powerful predecessor Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

READ: Khamenei says Israel will not defeat Iran as strikes pummel Lebanon