Mayor Jenderal Qasem Soleimani atau Ghasem Soleimani (11 Maret 1957 – 3 Januari 2020 bahasa Persia: قاسم سلیمانی) merupakan perwira militer senior Iran dalam Pasukan Pengawal Revolusi Islam (IRGC) dan sejak tahun 1998 menjadi komandan dari Pasukan Quds—sebuah divisi yang bertanggung jawab untuk operasi ekstrateritorial dari Iran. Ia seorang veteran perang Iran–Irak, dan telah aktif di berbagai konflik Timur Tengah, terutama di Irak dan Syam. Metode yang ia gunakan merupakan gabungan antara intervensi militer dengan penanaman ideologi dan strategi diplomasi yang keras kepala. Pasukan Quds telah lama memberikan bantuan militer untuk Hizbullah di Lebanon dan Hamas di Wilayah Palestina. oleimani selalu memiliki pengaruh politik dan militer di Irak melalui partai politik Syiah dan Kurdi, yang memberontak terhadap Saddam pada Pemberontakan Irak 1991. Iran telah mempersenjatai dan membantu pemberontak melawan Saddam. Pada tahun 2012, Soleimani membantu pemerintah Suriah, sekutu penting Iran, selama Perang Saudara Suriah. Soleimani juga ikut membantu komando gabungan pemerintah Irak dan pasukan milisi Syiah melawan Negara Islam Irak dan Syam (NIIS) di 2014-2015. Soleimani dan Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis tewas dalam serangan udara AS pada 3 Januari 2020 di dekat Bandar Udara Internasional Bagdad. Serangan udara tersebut merupakan balasan terhadap penyerangan Kedutaan Besar Amerika Serikat di Bagdad yang diduga dilakukan oleh milisi yang didukung Iran. Kematiannya dikonfirmasi oleh pejabat tinggi Departemen Pertahanan Amerika Serikat. Soleimani tewas pada 3 Januari 2020 akibat serangan rudal yang menyerang rombongan dirinya di Bandara Bagdad.[14] Tubuhnya berhasil diidentifikasi dari cincin yang ia gunakan, sedangkan tes DNA masih menunggu hasil. Departemen Pertahanan Amerika Serikat mengeluarkan pernyataan bahwa serangan tersebut dilakukan atas arahan dari Presiden Donald Trump.
Qasem Soleimani (Persian: قاسم سلیمانی, pronounced [ɢɒːseme solejmɒːniː]; 11 March 1957 – 3 January 2020), also spelled Qassem Suleimani or Qassim Soleimani, was an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and, from 1998 until his death, commander of its Quds Force, a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. Soleimani began his military career at the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, during which he eventually commanded the 41st Division. He was later involved in extraterritorial operations, providing military assistance to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In 2012, Soleimani helped bolster the Syrian government, a key Iranian ally, during the Syrian Civil War, particularly in its operations against ISIL and its offshoots. Soleimani also assisted in the command of the combined Iraqi government and Shia militia forces that advanced against ISIL in 2014–2015. Soleimani was killed in a targeted U.S. drone strike on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad, Iraq. Also killed were Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) deputy head, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.[19] Soleimani was succeeded as commander of the Quds Force by Esmail Ghaani.
Soleimani was killed on 3 January 2020 around 1:00 a.m. local time (22:00 UTC on 2 January),[99] after missiles shot from American drones targeted his convoy near Baghdad International Airport.[100] He had just left his plane, which arrived in Iraq from Lebanon or Syria.[101] His body was identified using a ring he wore on his finger, with DNA confirmation still pending.[102] Also killed were four members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi-Iranian military commander who headed the PMF. The airstrike followed attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad by supporters of an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia and the 2019 K-1 Air Base attack. As the New York Times reported, "Trump tried to keep the focus on Iranian influence in Baghdad". The United States Department of Defense issued a statement that said the U.S. strike was carried out "at the direction of the President" and asserted that Soleimani had been planning further attacks on American diplomats and military personnel and had approved the attacks on the American embassy in Baghdad in response to U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on 29 December 2019, and that the strike was meant to deter future attacks. However, the U.S. administration has not provided any evidence for their assertion.
According to Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing, "The targeted killings of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis most likely violate international law [including] human rights law". She said the US "need to demonstrate that the persons targeted an imminent threat to others." In addition, Callamard described the killing of other individuals alongside Soleimani as unlawful. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Medea Benjamin (the founder of anti-war advocacy group CodePink) and Hillary Mann Leverett (a political risk consultant and former director of Iran affairs at the White House's National Security Council) designated the assassination of Soleimani "flatly illegal". Historian Ervand Abrahamian described the killing of Soleimani by the US as terrorism. He was succeeded by Esmail Ghaani as commander of the Quds Force.
