The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) foreign military intelligence agency, who visited Lebanon last month after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike, has not been heard from since last week's Beirut airstrike, Iran says. officials said.
Two senior Iranian security officials have confirmed that Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, has been missing since the weekend, Reuters reported.
An official told the station that Qaani was in Beirut's southern suburbs during the alleged missile attack that targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Saffieddin, but that he had not met with Hezbollah leaders. Ta.
Hezbollah officials said Israel had not authorized the search for Safiddin after Thursday's bombing in Beirut's southern suburbs. The group also said it would not announce whether Safidine was safe until the search was complete.
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Esmail Qaani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been missing since Israel launched an attack on Hezbollah in Beirut last week. (Morteza Nicobazul/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Saffieddin is reportedly the likely successor to Nasrallah, who was killed when Israel launched an offensive on Dahiya on September 27.
Iranian officials told The Associated Press that Iran and Hezbollah have been unable to contact Qani after the U.S. assassinated his predecessor, Qasem Soleimani, in a drone strike in 2020.
A second Iranian official told The Associated Press that Mr. Qani traveled to Lebanon after Mr. Nasrallah's killing, adding that authorities had not been able to contact him since the attack on Saffieddin.
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Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that struck the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Mara)
An Iranian official told Fox News Digital that the higher up you are, the harder it is to cover up.
“Regardless of the verdict on Mr. Qaani's whereabouts, the fact that the regime has not been able to deploy him to quell rumors means he is either injured or in hiding,” the official said. said. “Israel is imposing its dominance in Lebanon on commanders of the Iranian threat network, creating command and control issues and confusion that are giving rise to these rumors.”
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The IDF's profile photo shows Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah, who the IDF confirmed was killed in the attack. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)
Asked about reports that Qani may have been killed in an Israeli airstrike, Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the results of the strike were still being assessed.
Shoshani said the attack late last week was against Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
Qaani's Quds Force is responsible for overseeing Iran's collaboration with Hezbollah and other militias across the Middle East.
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IRGC Commander Brig. General Abbas Nilforushan was killed along with Nasrallah when an Israeli bomb hit his bunker on September 27.
Reuters contributed to this report.
