Qassem Soleimani was Iran’s ‘living martyr’ who saw long war against US and Israel as ‘lost paradise’
- A US air strike killed Soleimani, 62, and others as they travelled from Baghdad’s international airport early on Friday morning
- He oversaw Iran’s foreign operations and came to the attention of Americans following the 2003 invasion of Iraq
Soleimani survived the horror of Iran’s long war in the 1980s with Iraq to take control of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, responsible for the Islamic Republic’s foreign campaigns.
Relatively unknown in Iran until the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Soleimani’s popularity and mystique grew out of American officials calling for his killing. By the time it came a decade-and-a-half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recognisable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but becoming as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership.
“The warfront is mankind’s lost paradise,” Soleimani recounted in a 2009 interview. “One type of paradise that is portrayed for mankind is streams, beautiful nymphs and greeneries. But there is another kind of paradise … The warfront was the lost paradise of the human beings, indeed.”