Speculation is swirling over the fate of Iran’s Quds Force chief Esmail Qaani, last seen in Beirut a week ago. Reports suggest he may have died in a recent Israeli air strike in the Lebanese capital.
The Quds Force commander was reportedly in Beirut last week to assist its ally Hezbollah following a series of deadly IDF airstrikes that killed hundreds of members of the Iran-backed group. The report about Qaani’s possible death in an airstrike was also covered by The New York Times, citing unnamed officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Anxiety among IRGC
An anonymous member of the IRGC expressed concern over the lack of communication from Iranian leadership, which has caused anxiety among IRGC personnel, according to The Times of Israel. The uncertainty surrounding Qaani’s status has heightened fears within the paramilitary force as tensions escalate in the Middle East.
The brigadier general of the IRGC is the successor to Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in an airstrike in January 2020 that was ordered by former U.S. President Donald Trump. This report comes as the Israeli military said on Saturday that its forces had killed more than 400 Hezbollah fighters since Israel launched ground operations inside southern Lebanon on Monday.
Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s south Beirut stronghold, in one of the most powerful raids since Israel intensified its campaign of bombardment last week. “Since the beginning of the (ground) manoeuvre, forces have eliminated some 440 terrorists from the ground and from the air, including 30 commanders of various ranks,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.
Sayyed Safieddine ‘Lost’
A high-level Hezbollah source said on Saturday that contact with Hashem Safieddine, widely touted as potentially the group’s next leader, had been lost following Israeli strikes this week. The group said in a statement that there were “no Hezbollah sources and our viewpoint is issued in official statements”. It did not confirm or deny whether contact with Safieddine was lost.
“Contact with Sayyed Safieddine has been lost since the violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs” early on Friday, the official told AFP. “We don’t know if he was at the targeted site, or who may have been there with him,” he added. A second source close to Hezbollah also confirmed that communication had been cut off with Safieddine and that his whereabouts were unknown.
Hezbollah “is trying to reach the underground headquarters that were targeted, but every single time Israel starts striking again to impede rescue efforts,” he said. Safieddine “was with Hezbollah’s head of intelligence,” known as Hajj Murtada, when the strikes took place, he said.
If reports are to be believed, Qaani was with Safieddine when the IDF airstrike struck them in an underground bunker. The attack came a week after the Israeli military said it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in air strikes on the group’s headquarters in south Beirut.
(With agency inputs)
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