Early career Soleimani joined the Revolutionary Guard (
IRGC) in 1979 On 22 September 1980, when Saddam Hussein launched an invasion of Iran, setting off the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), Soleimani joined the battlefield serving as the leader of a military company, consisting of men from Kerman whom he assembled and trained. and rose through the ranks because of his role in successful operations to retake the lands Iraq had occupied, and eventually became the commander of the
41st Tharallah Division while still in his 20s, participating in most of the war's battles and major operations. He was mostly stationed at the southern front. He was also engaged in leading and organizing
irregular warfare missions deep inside Iraq by the Ramadan Headquarters. It was at this point that Soleimani established relations with
Kurdish Iraqi leaders and the
Shia Badr Organization, both opposed to Saddam Hussein. According to the former IRGC commander,
Mohammad Ali Jafari, Soleimani also intervened in the
2009 protests to "control the insecurity and riots".
Command of the Quds Force from
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei|left According to
Dexter Filkins, Soleimani became the commander of the Quds Force, named after the
Persian word for
Jerusalem, in 1998. Soleimani strengthened the relationship between Quds Force and
Hezbollah upon his appointment, and supported the latter by sending in operatives to assist in forcing Israel's withdrawal and the end to the
Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon.
The Washington Post's Alex Horton reported that the Quds Force provided
explosively formed penetrator "training and logistics to militants in Iraq".
Defense One reported that a spokesperson from the
United States Central Command claimed more than 500 American soldiers were killed by EFPs and other Iranian weapons in the
Iraq War and attributed the presence of EFPs in Iraq to the Quds Force.
The Pentagon later revised down this figure to 196, and a spokesperson for U.S. Senator
Ted Cruz revised his statement accordingly, declining to comment because it was "immaterial" toward the question of "receiv[ing] sanctions relief to the tune of millions of dollars". Weisgerber also cited
Columbia Journalism Review, debunking the notion that Iran was exclusively supplying the weapons, though leaving the door open for it providing help in terms of training and technology. Further, in 2006,
Common Dreams reported not only that the
U.S. military command knew that domestic production had been going on "for years" at the time of accusation against the Quds Force, they also "had considerable evidence that the
Mahdi Army had gotten the technology and the training on how to use it from Hezbollah rather than Iran", in line with
Hezbollah's claim of autonomy. The Mahdi Army
Shia militant group had spearheaded the
2004 Iraq spring fighting. Soleimani played a role in advising Hezbollah for its defense from Israel in the
2006 Lebanon War and at least once accompanied
Imad Mughniyeh. In an interview aired in October 2019, he said he was in Lebanon during the
2006 Israel–Hezbollah War to manage the conflict. On 11 January 2007, the United States
raided the Iranian Liaison Office in
Erbil, Iraq, believing that IRGC Commander-in-Chief
Mohammad Ali Jafari and Soleimani were there, and detained five Iranians with diplomatic passports. or "illegally armed militia group", reported by Dexter Filkins to be
Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, with the Iran-trained Hezbollah commander
Ali Musa Daqduq, The attackers were wearing American uniforms and had American weapons. Following the attack, a
U.S. Department of Defense official, Soleimani was described by an ex-
CIA operative, responsible for clandestine operations, as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today" and the principal military strategist and tactician in Iran's effort to deter Western influence and promote the expansion of Shia and Iranian influence throughout the Middle East. In Iraq, as the commander of the Quds Force, he was believed to have strongly influenced the organization of the Iraqi government, notably supporting the election of previous Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri Al-Maliki. On 24 January 2011, Soleimani was promoted to the rank of
major general (
Sarlashkar) by
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Khamenei was described as having a close relationship with him, calling Soleimani a "living martyr" and helping him financially.
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan In 1998, Soleimani played a role in diffusing the crisis between Iran and the
Taliban-ruled
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan caused by the 8 August
1998 killing of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan and the
1998 Mazar-i-Sharif massacre of
Hazara Shias by the Taliban. While the Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
Yahya Rahim Safavi, advocated for an Iranian invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, Soleimani convinced Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei that a policy of "strategic patience" would be more fruitful. Soleimani instead tripled Iranian support for the anti-Taliban
Northern Alliance and his Quds Force ran a secret training camp in
Tajikistan for its fighters. Following the
September 11 attacks in 2001, senior U.S. State Department official
Ryan Crocker flew to Geneva to meet with Iranian diplomats who were under the leadership of Soleimani with the purpose of collaborating to destroy the
Taliban. This collaboration was instrumental in defining the targets of air bombing operations in Afghanistan and in capturing key
Al-Qaeda operatives, but ended in January 2002, when President
George W. Bush named Iran as part of the "
axis of evil" in his State of the Union address.
Relationship with Hezbollah in Lebanon Hezbollah Secretary-General
Hassan Nasrallah said that Soleimani first came to Lebanon in 1998. On 12 July 2006, Hezbollah, under the operational command of
Imad Mughniyeh and
Khalid Bazzi, launched a
cross-border raid into Israel, killing three IDF soldiers and taking two hostages. Israel responded by
invading Lebanon. Soleimani on that day was in Damascus, but went to Beirut under intense Israeli bombing and throughout the course of the war stayed in
Dahieh alongside Hezbollah's Secretary-General Nasrallah and military chief
Imad Mughniyeh, forming a three-man command to supervise all of Hezbollah's operations during the war.-->
Support for Palestinian resistance Soleimani is alleged to have strengthened the relationship with
Hamas, the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Quds Force during the
Second Intifada, when he and the chief of military operations of
Hezbollah,
Imad Mughniyeh, oversaw the smuggling of weapons to the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions, according to Lebanese militant
Anis al-Naqqash. After the 2007
blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt, Soleimani's Quds Force was alleged to have been active in supporting the construction of tunnels under Gaza and the smuggling of weapons through the tunnels to the armed wings of Hamas and the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In 2021, a senior Hamas representative to
Lebanon, Ahmad Abd al-Hadi said: Today there are 360 kilometers of tunnels in Gaza... Two people came up with the idea of digging these tunnels: The first is the martyred commander
Imad Mughniyeh, and the second is Hajj Qasem Soleimani... According to the
American Enterprise Institute, Soleimani along with other Iranian officials worked with Hamas leaders against the
Israeli Army during the
2008-2009 Gaza War.
Syrian Civil War was reportedly orchestrated by Soleimani. Soleimani was involved in planning and carrying out the Siege of Baba Amr during the
Siege of Homs in 2011–2014, according to the then-Syrian Minister of Defense,
Ali Abdullah Ayyoub. In the later half of 2012, Soleimani assumed personal control of the Iranian intervention in the Syrian Civil War, when the Iranians became deeply concerned about the Assad government's inability to fight the opposition, and the negative consequences to the Islamic Republic if the Syrian government fell. He reportedly coordinated the war from a base in
Damascus at which a Lebanese
Hezbollah commander and an Iraqi Shia militia coordinator were mobilized, in addition to Syrian and Iranian officers. Under Soleimani, the command "coordinated attacks, trained militias, and set up an elaborate system to monitor rebel communications". According to a Middle Eastern security official Dexter Filkins talked to, thousands of Quds Force and Iraqi Shia militiamen in Syria were "spread out across the entire country". was, according to John Maguire, a former
CIA officer in Iraq, "orchestrated" by Soleimani. Soleimani was much credited in Syria for the strategy that assisted President Bashar al-Assad in finally repulsing rebel forces and recapturing key cities and towns.
Orchestration of military coalition in 2015 In 2015, Soleimani began gathering support from various sources to combat the newly resurgent
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and rebel groups which had both successfully taken large swaths of territory from Assad's forces. He was reportedly the main architect of the joint intervention involving Russia as a new partner with Assad and Hezbollah. According to
Reuters, at a meeting in Moscow in July, Soleimani unfurled a map of Syria to explain to his Russian hosts how a series of defeats for President Bashar al-Assad could be turned into victory—with Russia's help. Soleimani's visit to Moscow was the first step in planning for the
Russian military intervention that has reshaped the Syrian war and forged a new
Iran–Russia alliance in support of the Syrian (and Iraqi) governments. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, also sent a senior envoy to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin. "Putin reportedly told [a senior Iranian envoy] 'Okay we will intervene. Send Qassem Soleimani.'" Soleimani went to explain the map of the theatre and coordinate the strategic escalation of military forces in Syria. Soleimani had a decisive impact on the theater of operations, which led to a strong advance in southern Aleppo with the government and allied forces re-capturing two military bases and dozens of towns and villages in a matter of weeks. There was also a series of major
advances towards Kuweiris air-base to the north-east. By mid-November, the Syrian army and its allies had gained ground in southern areas of Aleppo Governorate, capturing numerous rebel strongholds. Soleimani was reported to have personally led the drive deep into the southern Aleppo countryside where many towns and villages fell into government hands. He reportedly commanded the Syrian Arab Army's 4th Mechanized Division, Hezbollah, Harakat Al-Nujaba (Iraqi), Kata'ib Hezbollah (Iraqi), Liwaa Abu Fadl Al-Abbas (Iraqi), and Firqa Fatayyemoun (Afghan/Iranian volunteers). In early February 2016, backed by Russian and Syrian air force airstrikes, the 4th Mechanized Division—in close coordination with Hezbollah, the National Defense Forces (NDF), Kata'eb Hezbollah, and Harakat Al-Nujaba—launched
an offensive in Aleppo Governorate's northern countryside, which eventually broke the three-year
siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa and cut off the rebels' main supply route from Turkey. According to a senior, non-Syrian security source close to Damascus, Iranian fighters played a crucial role in the conflict. "Qassem Soleimani is there in the same area", he said. In December 2016, new photos emerged of Soleimani at the
Citadel of Aleppo, though the exact date of the photos is unknown. In late March 2017, Soleimani was seen in the northern
Hama Governorate countryside in Syria, reportedly aiding Major General
Suheil al-Hassan to repel a
major rebel offensive.
War against ISIL in Iraq. Soleimani was involved in breaking the
Siege of Amirli by ISIL in the eastern part of the governorate. Soleimani had a significant role in Iran's fight against ISIL in Iraq. He was described as the "linchpin" bringing together Kurdish and Shia forces to fight ISIS, overseeing joint operations conducted by the two groups. In 2014, Soleimani was in the Iraqi city of
Amirli, to work with Iraqi forces to push back ISIL militants. The
Los Angeles Times reported that Amirli was the first town to successfully withstand an ISIL invasion, and was secured thanks to "an unusual partnership of Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers, Iranian-backed Shia militias and U.S. warplanes". A senior Iraqi official told the BBC that when the city of
Mosul fell, the rapid reaction of Iran, rather than American bombing, was what prevented a more widespread collapse. Soleimani also seems to have been instrumental in planning the operation to relieve Amirli in Saladin Governorate, where ISIL had laid siege to an important city. providing liaisons for intelligence-sharing along with arms, munitions and expertise. In the
operation to liberate Jurf Al Sakhar, he was reportedly "present on the battlefield". Some Shia militia commanders described Soleimani as "fearless", one pointing out that the Iranian general never wears a
flak jacket even on the front lines. In November 2014, Shia and Kurdish forces under Soleimani's command pushed ISIL out of the Iraqi villages of
Jalawla and Saadia in the
Diyala Governorate. in 2017 Soleimani played an integral role in the organization and planning of the crucial operation to
retake the city of Tikrit in Iraq from ISIL. The city of Tikrit rests on the left bank of the
Tigris river and is the largest and most important city between Baghdad and Mosul, giving it a high strategic value. The city fell to ISIL during 2014 when ISIL made immense gains in northern and central Iraq. After its capture, ISIL's
massacre at Camp Speicher led to 1,600 to 1,700 deaths of Iraqi Army cadets and soldiers. After months of careful preparation and intelligence gathering an offensive to encircle and capture Tikrit was launched in early March 2015. CIA chief
Mike Pompeo said he sent Soleimani and other Iranian leaders a letter holding them responsible for any attacks on U.S. interests by forces under their control. According to
Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, a senior aide for Iran's supreme leader, Soleimani ignored the letter when it was handed over to him during the
Abu Kamal offensive against ISIL, saying "I will not take your letter nor read it and I have nothing to say to these people." == Political career ==