Biography
Born on March 11, 1957, in the village of Qanat Malek in Kerman, Martyr Qassem Soleimani worked as a construction worker from an early age and later started his career as a contractor in the Kerman Water Authority.
The Holy Defense
After the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Martyr Soleimani became a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and at the same time as the Iran-Iraq war began, he trained several battalions in Kerman and sent them to the fronts. Martyr Haj Qassem Soleimani was appointed as the commander of the 41st Army of Tharallah in 1981 by the then-commander of the IRGC.
He was one of the commanders of Val Fajr 8, Karbala-4 and Karbala-5 operations in the Iraq war against Iran. The Karbala-5 operation was one of the most important operations of Iran, the result of which was the weakening of the political and military position of the Iraqi Baath army and the stabilization of the situation in favor of the Iranian military forces.
After the Holy Defense
Martyr Soleimani returned to Kerman after the end of the Iran-Iraq war and got involved in fighting with drug trafficking gangs on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan until he was appointed as the commander of the Quds Force in 2001. Later on, he received the rank of Major General from Ayatollah Khamenei in January 2011.
The fight against ISIL
Lt. General Qassem Soleimani was the top commander in the fight against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
ISIL was a terrorist group that emerged after the fall of Saddam in Iraq and the power vacuum in this region. Iran started fighting this US-backed terrorist group to maintain security and control in the region.
In 2011, the forces under the command of Martyr Soleimani, including the Fatemiyoun and the Zainbiyoun Brigades, went to Syria to fight against ISIL and other terrorist groups. In 2014, the city of Mosul was captured by ISIL, and Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, also reached the point of collapse.
Martyr Soleimani played an effective role in expelling ISIL from Iraq by organizing a part of the Hashd al-Sha’abi forces.
Haider al-Abadi, the prime minister of Iraq at the time, named General Qassem Soleimani as one of Iraq's main allies in the fight against ISIL.
In a letter addressed to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, which was published in Iranian media on November 21, 2017, Lt. General Haj Qassem Soleimani announced the end of ISIL and the raising of the Syrian flag in Al-Bukamal, one of the Syrian cities near the Iraqi border.
Part of the leader’s response to Martyr Soleimani is as follows,
“By destroying the cancerous and deadly mass of ISIL, you did a great service not only to the countries of the region and the Islamic world but also to all nations and to humanity.”
Order of Zulfaqar
In March 2019, Ayatollah Khamenei awarded the Order of Zulfaqar - Iran's highest military medal - to Martyr Soleimani. This medal is awarded to high-ranking commanders and chiefs of staff in the armed forces, whose measures in planning and directing combat operations have achieved desirable results.
Martyrdom of Haj Qassem Soleimani
In the early morning of Friday, January 3, 2020, in an American attack on two vehicles near Baghdad airport, General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, and Abu Mehdi Al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), along with several other members of the Hashd al-Sha’abi were targeted and martyred in this attack.
The act of terror was carried out under the direction of the US President of the time, Donald Trump, with the Pentagon taking responsibility for the strike.
Leader’s Message on martyrdom of Gen Soleimani
The leader of the Islamic revolution issued his condolence message after the martyrdom of General Qassem Soleimani,
Dear nation of Iran!
The great and admirable General of Islam ascended to heaven[...] The untainted souls of the martyrs embraced the pure soul of Qassem Soleimani. After years of sincere and courageous jihad against the devils and evil-doers of the world and after years of wishing for martyrdom in the path of God, alas, dear Soleimani attained this lofty station and his pure blood was spilt by the vilest of humans.
Severe revenge
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, announced that “Americans must know that up to the present time, we have planned 13 scenarios for taking our hard revenge and even in case the weakest scenario is finalized, that will be a nightmare for the US.”
Some of the Iraqi users have posted a picture of Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Movement, who had said in a previous speech on the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Resistance commanders, that the American occupying forces "came to the region vertically will return home horizontally."
On January 8, Iran’s IRGC targeted the US airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq after launching a wave of attacks to retaliate against the US assassination of Martyr Soleimani.
The magnificent burial ceremony
The body of Martyr Qassem Soleimani was held in a series of magnificent ceremonies on January 4, 5, 6, and 7 in the cities of Kadhimiya, Karbala, Najaf Ashraf, Ahvaz, Mashhad, Tehran, Qom and Kerman.
On January 6, 2020, in Tehran, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution offered prayers over the body of Martyr Soleimani and other martyrs at Tehran University; the funeral ceremony, which was attended by millions of people in Tehran, became the biggest funeral ceremony after Imam Khomeini's (RA) ceremony.
The body of Martyr Qassem Soleimani was finally buried on Tuesday, January 7th, in Golzar Shahada of Kerman. (pic)
"Lay me to rest next to my comrades. Bury me as a soldier," said Lt. Gen. Soleimani who worked for peace in the region and was a stronghold against the spread of extremism and terrorism in part of his will to his wife.
Some remarks by national and international authorities on Haj Qassem:
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei
“Martyr Lt. General Qassem Soleimani was an outstanding example of those educated in Islam and Imam Khomeini's school. He spent his whole life in Jihad on the path of God. Martyrdom was the reward of his unceasing efforts in all these years.”
“With his departure and with God's power, his work and path will not cease and severe revenge awaits those criminals who have tainted their filthy hands with his blood.”
“Our dear Martyr Soleimani proved that it is possible to be the most national face of the country, and it is also possible to be the most Ummati face of the country; he was simultaneously the most national and communal.”
Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah
“Soleimani has achieved his personal goal. Embracing martyrdom was his wish since he was young… In the last years, he spent many nights weeping while remembering martyrs as he was missing them.”
“The day of martyrdom of General Soleimani and Al-Muhandis is another sample of victory of blood over sword. In the school of Imam Hussein (a.s) and Sayyeda Zeinab (a.s.) we adore martyrdom and we don’t see but beauty.”
Ayatollah Ali Sistani
“The news of the martyrdom of Haj Qassem Soleimani was the source of regret and grief. The rare role of the late Soleimani in fighting Daesh (ISIL) in Iraq and the many efforts that they have tolerated in this regard cannot be forgotten."
Ebrahim Raeisi
Ebrahim Raeisi, then the chief of Iran's judiciary, wrote in his condolence message, "From every drop of their pure blood, hundreds of Qassem Soleimanis will grow in the world," adding that "Undoubtedly, the soldiers of the Resistance Front will take revenge for the blood of Haj Qassem" and this revenge will be "severe".
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf,
"Now, thanks to the blessing of martyrdom, you are more alive than ever and I am more alone,” wrote Qalibaf, then a member of the Expediency Council, on his Twitter account in response to the martyrdom of Qassem Soleimani. Qalibaf, who tweeted with the hashtag "Hard Revenge", further wrote, "Today, when you have achieved your wish, pray for me so that my years of waiting to see our martyred comrades will end."
Sergey Lavrov
Lavrov stressed that “the purposeful actions of a UN member state on eliminating officials of another UN member state, especially on the territory of a third sovereign state without giving it prior notice, blatantly violate the principles of international law and should be condemned.”
The consequences of Haj Qassem’s martyrdom
With the martyrdom of Haj Qassem Soleimani, not only there was no disruption in the flow of Resistance, but this school and this movement became more fertile, coherent and determined, and specifically, his martyrdom became the factor of the unity of Iran and Iraq.
In a sense, one can say that, contrary to the plans of the enemy, martyr Haj Qassem is far more dangerous for the enemies than Haj Qassem himself.
Complied by Sareh Khosravi
Your Comment