The Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani always appeared in the region when Iran was particularly concerned. His face was notorious especially in the crisis countries of Syria and Iraq, and his reputation was legendary.
There he liked to show himself alongside Shiite militias who are closely allied with Iraq. Although he was not the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), he was equally influential as the leader of the Al Kuds brigades operating abroad.
He and the Al-Kuds brigades have always been accused of implementing the 1979 export export doctrine. At the same time, he was considered one of the top strategists in the fight against the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. In Iran itself, he enjoyed a reputation among the Iranian leadership as an absolute flagship. He was also valued and respected by reformers who do not always support IRGC policies.
Soleimani was born in 1957 in Kerman in southeast Iran. From an early age he was against the monarchy in Iran and supported the Islamic movement led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. After the revolution in 1979, he became a member of the newly founded IRGC, which was supposed to act as the country’s second force alongside the classic army. Already during the eight-year war against Iraq (1980-88), he played an important role in fighting the Saddam Hussein regime. He then worked as a military strategist in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq.
In 1997 he became commander of the Al-Kuds Brigades, which is de facto considered the IRGC unit abroad. It is particularly important in the Syrian conflict and also helped keep President Bashar al-Assad in power. Western governments, however, saw the now killed Soleimani as a terrorist. He was considered the military face of Iranian interference in the region’s neighboring countries. (SDA)
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