IRGC Denies Reports of Qassem Soleimani's Death in Syria

Following reports of Qassem Soleimani's death, the commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, in clashes near Aleppo, the IRGC's public relations office denied this news, calling it 'media fabrication by Israeli sources.' On Saturday, the Debka website, published in Jerusalem and known for political-security analyses, cited sources close to Syrian rebels stating that Qassem Soleimani had been killed in clashes in eastern Aleppo. This website did not provide further details about the source of the news but noted that this 'claim' had not been confirmed by other sources. Now, two days after the news broke, Ramadan Sharif, the head of the IRGC's public relations, told IRNA that this report was 'fake' and stated that the Quds Force commander is 'in perfect health.' IRNA quoted the IRGC's public relations officer as saying, 'The Israelis set their wishes and aspirations as news and disseminate them through their media in virtual spaces, and the fake news of General Qassem Soleimani's martyrdom is of this type.' The Debka website, citing 'Syrian rebels,' claimed they targeted the vehicle carrying Soleimani with TOW missiles by tracking and pinpointing his movements. This report alleged that in addition to Qassem Soleimani, three other Iranian commanders accompanying him were also killed, naming Masoud Asghari, Mahmoud Dehghan, and Ahmad Rajai among the deceased. The report from this Israeli site was reflected in some Iranian sources on Monday, including Young Journalists Club and the Alif website. Earlier, in Azar 1393 (December 2014), reports about Qassem Soleimani being injured in a suicide attack by members of the Islamic State in Samarra were published, but the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied these reports. Qassem Soleimani was appointed as the commander of the IRGC's extraterritorial force, known as the Quds Force, in 1997, following changes in the IRGC's command structure, and in recent years, domestic media have referred to him as the main architect of the Islamic Republic's policies in Iraq and subsequently Syria. In recent years, images of Qassem Soleimani's field presence in clashes between Iraqi Shiite militants and Islamic State forces have been published. Regarding Qassem Soleimani's role in Syria, a recent interview with Hossein Hamadani, a senior IRGC commander who was killed near Aleppo some time ago, was published, in which it was stated that Hamadani was introduced to Syria by Soleimani. However, a notable point in this interview was that Hamadani mentioned that Soleimani had said that by bringing an army from Iran, 'he would end the Syrian war,' but the Iranian leader opposed this. According to Hamadani, the Iranian leader emphasized at that time that 'it should be used to defend the Syrian youth.' Hamadani, who previously had a history of commanding the IRGC in Tehran and suppressing protesters during the post-election protests of 2009, was killed in October of this year near Aleppo.