Iranian general says he isn’t dead yet

The chief of foreign operations for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) says reports of his death in Syria were — wait for it — greatly exaggerated, the Tasnim news agency reports.

Rather, a chuckling General Qassem Soleimani says in his office in Tehran, “martyrdom,” which he has been traveling through “plains and mountains to find,” has proven elusive.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards al-Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. (YouTube/BBC Newsnight)
Iranian Revolutionary Guards al-Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. (YouTube/BBC Newsnight)

IRGC troops have been fighting rebels in Syria alongside the soldier’s of Iran’s close ally, President Bashar Assad.

On Tuesday, AFP reported that Soleimani was lightly injured in fighting against rebels near Aleppo.

Soleimani “was injured a few days ago” in an offensive in the southwest of Aleppo province, a security source on the ground told AFP.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, also said the general had been hurt.

— AFP contributed

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