Chief of Iranian Revolutionary Guard seriously injured in Syria

Iranian media sources have confirmed that General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been seriously injured in Aleppo, Syria.

Iranian journalist Amir Mousavi, who is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, said in a post on his Facebook page that: “General Qassem Soleimani suffered injury on the battlefields and is now recovering well.”

The Persian-language opposition website AsrIran was the first to reveal the news in a report yesterday in which it revealed that Soleimani was seriously injured along with two other Iranian personnel in an anti-tank rocket attack 12 days ago in the northern Syrian city.

The AsrIran website is considered close to the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

According to the report, referenced by Al-Arabiya news agency, General Soleimani is currently recovering in a hospital in Tehran.

Military observers say General Soleimani pledged his support to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow in August and promised to resolve the battles on the ground both in Aleppo and Homs in favour of Syrian regime President Bashar Assad and his allies.

According to the report, in the wake of Soleimani’s injury a senior Quds Force commander took command of the Iranian forces and militias allied to them last week.

However, the pro-regime Iranian Tasnim news agency has denied the report, quoting Revolutionary Guards spokesman General Ramezan Sharif as saying that rumours of Soleimani’s injury are a “sheer lie” and that they are “aimed at influencing the public opinion and the Resistance Front.”