TEHRAN (TDI): Iran’s Quds Force commander, Esmail Qaani, has not been heard from since Israeli airstrikes targeted areas in Beirut.
According Iranian security officials Qaani had went to Lebanon after the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack.
The officials, said Qaani was in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, during an Israeli strike last week, which reportedly targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine.
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However, the Iranian official clarified that Qaani was not meeting with Safieddine at the time of the attack.
Hezbollah officials confirmed that Israel’s bombing of Dahiyeh had hampered efforts to locate Safieddine, who is seen as a potential successor to Nasrallah.
The group has not provided any public update on Safieddine’s status and stated that an announcement would be made once the search was completed.
They said that Tehran and Hezbollah have been unable to make contact with Qaani since the strikes.
Qaani, who succeeded Qassem Soleimani as head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force after Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020, had been involved in efforts to support Hezbollah following Nasrallah’s death.
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Israel has continued its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, targeting multiple locations in Dahiyeh, as part of its broader efforts to weaken the Iran-backed militia.
An Israeli military spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, confirmed that Israel had conducted an attack on Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut, but the results of the operation are still being assessed.
