Who Is Qassem Soleimani, the Head of Iran’s Quds Force Killed in Iraq

Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force killed in an U.S strike in Iraq early Friday morning, was one of the most prominent and influential military figures in Iran today. Soleimani was involved in Iranian military activity in many countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Caucasus states, and was considered one of the people closest to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

>> This is Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, head of pro-Iranian Kataib Hezbollah, killed with Soleimani

>> Iranian general Qassem Soleimani killed in Iraq airstrike, reports say

The 61-year-old father of five didn't give many interviews to the Iranian media; he left that to the politicians, for whom he didn't have much respect for. He wasn’t a religious scholar and didn’t receive a religious education.

Rather, he started working at a young age, as an ordinary construction worker, to pay off a $100 debt to the shah’s government and help support his impoverished family. Later, he worked as a municipal water technician in Kerman. He isn’t even known to have participated in the demonstrations that toppled the shah in 1979.