Iranians say Quds Force chief missing since trip to Beirut area

Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who traveled to Lebanon after the killing last month of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack, has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials tell Reuters.

One of the officials says Qaani was in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, during a bombardment on Thursday that was reported to have targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, but the official says he was not meeting Safieddine.

The official says Iran and Hezbollah have not been able to contact Qaani since then.

Israel has been hitting multiple targets in Dahiyeh as it pursues a campaign against Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

The second official also says Qaani had travelled to Lebanon after the killing of Nasrallah and the Iranian authorities had not been able to contact him since the strike against Safieddine, who was widely expected to be the next Hezbollah chief.

Hezbollah has made no comment so far on Safieddine.

Israel’s strikes in Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah power base, have taken out many of the group’s top leadership, as well as a number of Iranian officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.