Al-Arabia – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed the deputy commander of the Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, as the successor to Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad on Friday. Supreme Leader Khamenei said in a statement that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, the military unit responsible for projecting Iran’s influence via …

Al-Arabia – An hour after midnight on Friday, top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was making his way to Baghdad International Airport from Damascus. https://vid.alarabiya.net/2020/01/03/timelinevidsoleimanie67c36fd/timelinevidsoleimanie67c36fd___timelinevidsoleimanie67c36fd_video.mp4 Shortly after landing in Baghdad, he was greeted by Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes. Moments after their convoy began leaving the airport, several explosions rocked the Iraqi capital Baghdad. By 02:00 AM local time, Baghdad …

HRANA – This leaflet contains the 2019’s analytical and statistical annual report on human rights in Iran, prepared by the Department of Statistics and Publications of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI). This statistical analysis report presented by HRAI is the result of the daily efforts of this organization and its dedicated members as part of a daily statistic and census project …

RFL/RE – Senior Russian officials have publicly condemned the U.S. killing of Iran’s most powerful military commander, joining foreign leaders in warning that it will lead to an escalation of tensions in the already unstable Middle East region.However, the Kremlin may be able to capitalize on the controversial attack against its ally Tehran if it drives a deeper wedge in …

RFL/RE – Thousands of people gathered in Baghdad on January 4 for a funeral procession for a senior Iranian military commander and several others killed one day earlier by a U.S. air strike in the Iraqi capital that has escalated already heightened tensions in the region and Iran warned has “started a military war.” Many of the participants waved Iraqi …

VOA – Did President Donald Trump have the legal authority to order the killing of a top Iranian general in Iraq? The short answer: Probably. But it depends on facts that aren’t publicly known yet. And legal experts are quick to point out that even if it was legal that doesn’t make it the right decision, or one that will …

VOA – General Qassem Soleimani, the larger-than-life head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, had escaped death many times, but he couldn’t flee the U.S. drone-launched missile that struck his convoy shortly after he arrived in Baghdad from Lebanon.  The repercussions from the targeted strike on a road adjacent to Baghdad International Airport in the middle of the night Friday will …

Al-Monitor – The United States’ killing of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most influential military commander, left his country in shock; this wasn’t an expected scenario in the middle of a crisis that was thought to be under control between Tehran and Washington in the aftermath of the latter’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May 2018. Nor was this part of …

Radiofarda – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Esmail Qaani (Ghaani) as commander of Qods force less than 12 hours after the killing of Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. In his decree appointing Qaani, Khamenei characterized him as “one of the most distinguished Revolutionary Guard commanders”. Qaani fought in the Iran-Iraq war of the …

Radiofarda – The shocking killing of brigadier General Qasem Soleimani (1957-2020), who had served for the last twenty-two years as the Commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force will have profound impact on American, Iraqi and Iranian politics. A man who before the 1979 Iranian Revolution had worked as a mason and later a contractor in a regional water department …