Source Strongly Denies Rumors about IRGC Quds Force Commander General Soleimani

A top-placed source in the Iranian IRGC strongly rejected rumors spread by the terrorist groups on killing Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani as ridiculous, stressing that “the brave commander is alive and safe”.
“General Soleimani is alive and safe,” the source told FNA English on Sunday after terrorist groups and an Israeli website claimed that the Iranian major general has been killed in Aleppo.

“Such rumors have been spread by the terrorists due to the heavy blows that they had sustained from the Syrian forces led by the Iranian military advisors in different parts of Syria in the past two months and given General Soleimani’s key role in their defeats,” he added.

The source declined to mention where General Soleimani is stationed now, and stressed, “His whereabouts is always a top secret and only his team and a few top commanders who stand atop the chain of command know his realtime location.”

“There is a very strict Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) to contact him, and his location is only known by very few people top the chain of the command who are to coordinate the war on terrorism,” he said.

“There is also a level two who come to know controlled information about him only after three days. These commanders come to be informed of such sensitive information during briefings and debriefings,” the source told FNA.

“This is for his safety and due to the secret nature of his mission,” he said. “Gen. Soleimani is not a commander in the battlefield who could be hunted. His case is totally different from martyr General Hamadani. He is the liason of all fronts to coordinate war in Iraq and Syria and no wise person would ever send such a top leader to a small battlefield.”

“The terrorists and their Zionist backers spread such rumors for two reasons,” he explained, “one is to lower the morale of the resistance and Syrian forces, and two to find a chance to trace his location through a scrutiny of our responses.”

“These blind rumors are rediculous and lead to nowhere,” he said, and reiterated, “The Iranian general is alive and in a regional country.”

“To ensure you that such reports are totally untruthful, I let you know that General Soleimani was in the holy city of Karbala in Southern Iraq and doing a pilgrimage at the holy shrine of Imam Hossein (AS) in the last few days,” said the source.

He also rejected to confirm the date of a picture released by one of General Soleimani’s fans captioned as “General Soleimani in Aleppo Operations Room Yesterday”, and said, “General Soleimani changes place every hour.”

“Those loving him and admiring him should know that from now on the Israeli and western media outlets start releasing rumors about General Soleimani’s health every other day for the two reasons that I have just explained,” he added.

Syrian terrorists claimed Saturday night that they had killed Iranian Qods chief, the commander of Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria, Gen. Qassem Soleiman, in the fighting east of Aleppo. Their claim was not confirmed by any other source.

The Israeli Debka file released the terrorists’ rumor, claiming that they struck his car with a TOW missile.

The terrorist groups and the Israeli-affiliated Debka file are known to have a long record of fake reports for psychological operations.

The Syrian army, popular forces and Hezbollah, backed up by Russian warplanes, have made astonishing advances all throughout Syria, specially in the Northern Aleppo province, in the last few weeks.

Hundreds of terrorists have been killed and thousands have escaped the battlefield and withdrawn to the borders with Turkey and Jordan, while many others have already crossed the border to these countries.

General Soleimani has been praised by different classes of the Iranian society as well as the regional figures for his brave commandership in the IRGC Quds Force and for his strategic thoughts and major wins in the war on terrorist groups in the region.

The Iranian legislators in a statement issued in January lauded Major General Soleimani for his effective efforts in pushing back the threat of ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

“We appreciate the powerful, committed and mighty IRGC Quds forces and their smart, powerful and hero Commander Major General Soleimani,” the statement said.

“We also appreciate the Quds Force’s determining role as the mighty arm of the Islamic Revolution and the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in defending the Muslim nations and regional security and also in conducting powerful and successful campaign against the terrorist grouplets, specially the criminal and evil ISIL terrorist group which is a hireling of the world arrogance and Zionism,” it added.

In a similar letter to General Soleimani in December, Iranian university professors appreciated him for his successful and positive role in the regional developments and against the hegemonic policies of the western governments in the region.

“In the current sensitive conditions that the hegemonic US government seeks to make geopolitical changes and do some new engineering in the region and the Muslim world and dreams of creating a larger Middle-East in the old Asian continent to safeguard its political-economic interests and provide long-term security for the illegitimate Zionist regime… the IRGC Quds Force has been the main obstacle to the materialization of those hegemonic geopolitical objectives,” the letter said.

The Iranian university professors praised Major General Soleimani for his and his colleagues’ non-stop efforts in the region, reminding that the anger felt by the US, its western allies and the regional reactionary governments at his presence and efforts vindicate the efficiency and efficacy of his actions.

In relevant remarks early November, senior military officials in Baghdad said Major General Soleimani planned the liberation operations of Jurf al-Sakher from the ISIL terrorist group’s occupation some three months earlier.

After the ISIL fled from the embattled town of Jurf al-Sakher late October, the Iraqi military gained a victory against the extremist group, with state television showing tanks and Humvees parading through the town and soldiers touring government buildings that had been occupied by the militants since August.

Photos soon emerged on independent Iraqi news websites revealing presence of the powerful Iranian general Soleimani, whose name has become synonymous with the victories of Iraqi ground forces, AP said in a report.

An Iraqi militia commander, who agreed only to be identified by his nickname, Abu Zeinab, said Soleimani began planning the Jurf al-Sakher operation three months ago.

Militia commanders told the AP that General Soleimani was on the front lines in Jurf al-Sakher, providing weapons training to some 7,000 troops and militia fighters, and coordinating with military commanders ahead of the operation.

Some other militia commanders, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media, describe Soleimani as “fearless” — one pointing out that the Iranian general never wears a flak jacket, even on the front lines.

“Soleimani has taught us that death is the beginning of life, not the end of life,” one militia commander said.

Also, there are unconfirmed reports from the battlefield about witnessing Iran’s Major General Qassem Soleimani leading the battle which lifted the two and a half-year-long siege of Kuweires military airbase after killing hundreds of ISIL terrorists last Tuesday.

Sources from both sides of the war said General Soleimani was the top field commander and has been leading the CentCom of the Syrian army-NDF-Hezbollah at the time.