Suleimani, Qassem

Kassem Suleimani was born in 1957 into a poor peasant family in the mountain village of Kanat-e Malek, Rabor district, Iranian southeastern province of Kerman ^[6] . His father, who received a land allotment for Shah's reform, was saddled with a substantial loan of 100 fogs . Therefore, having graduated from only five grades of elementary school, 13-year-old Kassem and his relative went to work in the provincial center of Kerman , where they were able to find laborers on the construction site of the school on Haju Street, on the outskirts of the city. According to Suleimani, they were paid two fogs per day ^[1] . After paying off the loan, he got a job in the local water treatment department, where after a while he became an assistant engineer ^[7] .

Young Suleymani supported the ideas of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and from the first days he joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which later turned into an elite unit, personally reporting to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . After completing 45-day courses organized for new fighters, Suleimani began to perform non-military tasks. He was entrusted with the provision of uninterrupted water supply to the province of Kerman ^[7] .

In 1980, he received his first military experience during the suppression of the IRGC of Kurdish separatism , although he did not play a key role in this operation ^[6] .

When Saddam Hussein invaded Iran on September 22, 1980 , Kassem Suleimani was a lieutenant in the ranks of the IRGC . However, with the outbreak of hostilities, he quickly became famous, thanks in large part to bold reconnaissance operations behind enemy lines. Thanks to this, he quickly rose to the ranks and by the age of 30 he was given command of the 41st Tharallah Division.

In 1999, after the suppression of student unrest in Tehran, he was one of the 24 IRGC officers who wrote a letter to President Mohammad Khatami , expressing their concern about the incident and dissatisfaction with the fact that the army was involved in the suppression of the demonstrations ^[8] .

In the 1990s, he commanded units of the IRGC in the southeast of Iran, in the city of Kerman . Through this region along the borders of Afghanistan, drug trafficking ran to Turkey and further to Europe. But the military experience of Suleimani helped him establish a successful fight against drug trafficking.

In 2000, he was appointed commander of the special forces of the IRGC - the el-Quds (Jerusalem) brigade.

He was considered one of the possible successors to the post of commander of the IRGC when, in 2007, General Yahya Rahim Safavi left his post.

In 2008, he led a group of Iranian investigators who should find out the circumstances of the death of the senior member and head of special services of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah Imad Fayez Mugniya .

November 24, 2015 was the organizer and leader of the search and rescue operation to search and evacuate Konstantin Murakhtin pilot of a downed Su-24M ^{[9] [10] [11]} .

Sanctions

His name is included in the so-called "black list" of the UN out of 15 senior Iranian military and political figures suspected of involvement in the development of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs ^[12] .

Ratings

Inside Iran, Kassem Suleymani is considered a national hero, about whom documentaries and feature films are shot, songs are written and to whom achievements are dedicated. Among politicians, he is considered an outstanding strategist and organizer of special operations, as well as the creator of a wide intelligence network in the Middle East, relying on Shiite communities. According to John Maguire, Suleimani is the most influential and powerful figure in the Middle East, despite the fact that "no one heard anything about him" ^[13] .