Suspicions are starting to mount about the whereabouts of the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF), a designated terrorist organization, following an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah late last month.
Qaani — who replaced Qassem Soleimani after the Trump administration killed Soleimani in a drone strike in January 2020 — has not been seen in public since the September 27 strike, according to the Middle East Eye.
Qaani traveled to Syria with other IRGC commanders after the strike on Nasrallah to assess the situation on the ground.
He was reportedly set to attend a meeting of Hezbollah’s Shura Council on October 4 with Nasrallah’s presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, when he backed out of the meeting at the last second.
Within minutes of Safieddine arriving at the deep underground bunker, a powerful airstrike hit the bunker and demolished everything above and below ground.
Following the strike on Safieddine, contact with Qaani was lost for at least two days, leading to speculation that he was dead or had been injured in the strike.
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Nearly a dozen sources throughout the Middle East told the publication that suspicions are high with Iran’s Islamic regime that Israel has penetrated the IRGC at high levels since it has been able to locate and kill top terrorists throughout the region, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in July when a bomb was placed into his room at an IRGC compound.
The report claims that Qaani is under “house arrest” and his team is under investigation as officials seek to find the source of the Israeli breach into the IRGC.
Sky News Arabia reported that during his interrogation on Thursday, Qaani suffered a heart attack and was taken to the hospital.
However, a semi-official news agency linked to the IRGC said this week that Qaani was set to soon receive a medal from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Commander Qaani is in perfect health and will receive the Fath medal from the Supreme Leader in the coming days,” Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to Qaani, told Tasnim.
