One of the top generals of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Esmail Qa’ani, has reappeared in the public eye following days of speculation he may have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
Qa’ani is the commander of the elite Quds Force, one of five branches of the IRGC, and oversees Iran’s military and intelligence operations abroad, primarily in the Middle East.
He took over the role in 2020 after his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq.
Footage broadcast by Iranian state media on Tuesday showed Qa’ani in attendance at a memorial service in Tehran for a general killed by Israel.
As Israel ramped up its attacks on the Iran-backed Hezbollah milita in Lebanon in the past weeks, questions began arising about Qa’ani’s whereabouts, with some media speculating that he may have been killed in an Israeli aistrike in Lebanon on October 3.
Other outlets reported that the general had vanished because associates of his were being questioned over suspicions of espionage for Israel.
Iranian state media has rejected all those claims, reporting that Qa’ani was doing well.
