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Revision as of 00:43, 27 October 2010 by RjwilmsiBot (talk | contribs) (→References: Adding Persondata using AWB (7333))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Qassem Suleimani | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance | Iran |
| Service | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Commands | Quds Force |
Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani (born March 11, 1957) is the commander of Special Forces IRGC - Quds Force, a division of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which conducts special operations outside Iran. He is listed by the United States as a terrorist, which forbids U.S. citizens from doing business with him.
Early Life
Little is known about his early life. It is believed that he was born 11 March 1957 in the city of Qom.
Iran-Iraq War
On September 22, 1980 when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran , Qassem Soleimani was a lieutenant in the ranks of the IRGC. However, with the outbreak of hostilities, he became famous, thanks largely to daring reconnaissance operations behind enemy lines. Due to this, he quickly rose in rank and at age 30 was given command of the 41st Tharallah Division.
Service
In 1999 after the suppression of student unrest in Tehran, he was one of 24 IRGC officers who wrote a letter to President Mohammad Khatami expressing their concern that the suppression of free speech had involved the army.
During the 1990's he was an IRGC commander in south-eastern Iran, in the city of Kerman. Through this region along the borders of Afghanistan ran drug trafficking to Turkey and onto Europe. But Soleimani's military experience helped him develop a successful strategy against drug trafficking.
In 2000 he was appointed commander of the IRGC Special Forces - the Quds Force ("Jerusalem Brigade"). He was considered one of the possible successors to the post of commander of the IRGC, when General Yahya Rahim Safavi left this post in 2007.
In 2008 he led a group of Iranian investigators looking into the death of a senior member and chief of intelligence of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah, Imad Fayez Mughniyeh.
Sanctions
In March 2007, he was included on a list of Iranian individuals targeted with sanctions in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747. Suleimani helped arrange a ceasefire between the Iraqi Army and Mahdi Army in March 2008.
In 2009, a leaked report stated that General Suleimani met Christopher R. Hill and Raymond T. Odierno (America’s two most senior officials in Baghdad at the time) in the office of Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani (who has known General Suleimani for decades). Mr. Hill and General Odierno denied the occurrence of the meeting.
References
- ^ "Designation of Iranian Entities and Individuals for Proliferation Activities and Support for Terrorism". United States Department of State. October 25, 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-03-12. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
- ^ "Iranian who brokered Iraqi peace is on U.S. terrorist watch list". McClatchy Newspapers. March 31, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
- http://www.iranian.com/News/1999/July/irgc.html
- "United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747" (PDF). United Nations. 24 March 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
- Iraq and its neighbours: A regional cockpit
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