{"id":13633,"date":"2020-01-22T12:42:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T12:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=13633"},"modified":"2020-01-22T12:42:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T12:42:27","slug":"soleimani-in-syria-a-legacy-of-death-and-devastation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/soleimani-in-syria-a-legacy-of-death-and-devastation\/","title":{"rendered":"Soleimani in Syria: A legacy of Death and Devastation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Few individuals\u00a0have caused as much sheer human suffering in Syria as Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian warlord assassinated on Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>By Al-Jumhuriya website<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, the life of Qassem Soleimani\u2014the immensely powerful Iranian operative killed by a US Reaper drone near Baghdad airport on 3 January\u2014mirrored that of Iran\u2019s Islamic Republic itself since its inception in 1979.<\/p>\n<p>Making his name in 1982, in the Second Battle of Khorramshahr during Iran\u2019s brutal war with Iraq, Soleimani narrowly escaped death after being gravely wounded, but survived to subsequently oversee the Revolutionary Guard brigades deployed along Iran\u2019s border with Afghanistan. His knack for foreign entanglements was acknowledged in 1998 when Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed him commander of the Guard\u2019s \u201cQuds Force,\u201d responsible for external operations.<\/p>\n<p>The job placed Soleimani in direct contact with Iran\u2019s proxy groups across the region, the most prominent of which at the time was Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah militia. Following the 9\/11 attacks, several clandestine\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2013\/09\/30\/the-shadow-commander\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">meetings<\/a>\u00a0took place between US officials and Iranian diplomats subordinate to Soleimani, in which de facto cooperation against the Taliban in Afghanistan was the subject of conversation. Soleimani\u2019s experience with the latter country equipped him well for the role. While such direct channels between Washington and Tehran would soon dry up, it was to be Soleimani\u2019s first taste of building complex understandings between the two capitals; understandings concerning not just Afghanistan but Iraq. In the wake of the 2003 invasion, these would eventually enable a reduction in attacks on US forces in Iraq\u2019s Shia-majority areas, and the creation of an Iraqi Shia political class that was both loyal to Tehran and prepared to accept a US presence in the country; exemplified by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.<\/p>\n<p>In the context of this relationship, Iran assisted US intelligence in hunting down the leaderships of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It was, however, an unstable relationship, soured by US sanctions, political conflict, and intractable negotiations over Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Nonetheless, a degree of minimum stability was maintained, allowing for Iran\u2019s expansion within Iraq in exchange for silence about the US presence, and later the orderly withdrawal of Washington\u2019s troops during President Barack Obama\u2019s term.<\/p>\n<p>Soleimani\u2019s was a constant presence in these years; executing the Supreme Leader\u2019s orders on the ground and managing Iran\u2019s regional influence in general. As time went on, this influence was permitted by Washington to grow beyond Lebanese Hezbollah, such that Iraq fell firmly into Iran\u2019s orbit\u2014and Soleimani became one of the Middle East\u2019s most powerful men.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The Arab Spring: An existential threat<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, Soleimani was promoted to the rank of Major General. It was no accident that this came at the height of the Arab Spring, which the Iranian regime saw as an existential battle to preserve its regional power. The strategy conceived by Tehran to confront the threat of democratic revolution had Syria at its very center.<\/p>\n<p>Following the outbreak of Syria\u2019s uprising in the spring of 2011, Iran swiftly determined to stand by Bashar al-Assad and secure his dictatorship at all costs. The signs of Iranian intervention grew clearer as Assad\u2019s regime neared collapse in 2012, and were openly visible by the first half of 2013, when Hezbollah fought in numerous critical battles in the Qalamoun mountain range and southwest Homs Province.<\/p>\n<p>Not by coincidence, 2013 witnessed a number of major transformations in the Assad regime\u2019s strategy for crushing the revolution. Military operations were expanded, and choking sieges were used to literally starve the residents of areas where military breakthroughs proved difficult\u2014not merely as punishments, as in 2011 and 2012, but rather as part of a deliberate strategy to permanently alter the areas\u2019 features. These \u201cstarve or surrender\u201d sieges, as they were called in Arabic (<em>al-joo\u2019 aw al-rukoo\u2019<\/em>), were accompanied by incessant bombardment from both ground and air. The winter of 2013-14 saw deaths by malnutrition in the Damascus suburbs of Ghouta and Yarmouk, and famine pervaded the besieged districts in general. These developments were intimately linked to the growing Iranian influence across the country.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, as Iran\u2019s man in Syria, Soleimani was also responsible for re-structuring the forces fighting on Assad\u2019s behalf. Under Soleimani\u2019s direction, new sectarian militias were created and trained in parallel with the regime\u2019s army, which was deemed unfit for the task. Alongside Hezbollah, these militias would become Iran\u2019s principal ground forces in the fight against Assad\u2019s opponents.<\/p>\n<p>In parallel with the creation of these so-called \u201cNational Defense\u201d militias\u2014as well as others with explicitly sectarian identities, such as the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigades\u2014Soleimani also procured Iraqi militias to fight in Syria. Over time, mercenaries from states as far away as Afghanistan and Pakistan were brought over to join the fray, some of them\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2017\/10\/01\/iran-afghan-children-recruited-fight-syria\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">children<\/a>\u00a0as young as 14.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cSend Qassem Soleimani\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By 2015, Soleimani may have saved Assad\u2019s regime from collapse, but he had not yet altered the balance of power decisively in Damascus\u2019 favor. Large swathes of Syrian territory remained in the hands of opposition factions, or else under the control of the Islamic State or similar jihadists. The solution lay in the ally shared by Assad and Iran: Vladimir Putin, who had already played a key role in sheltering Damascus diplomatically at the UN Security Council, blocking any and all resolutions which could conceivably lead to meaningful action by the international community against the regime.<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, Soleimani flew in person to Moscow in July 2015 to \u201cput the map of Syria on the table\u201d before his Russian hosts and explain how, with their air power, the war could be won. Putin was convinced, according to officials\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-mideast-crisis-syria-soleimani-insigh\/how-iranian-general-plotted-out-syrian-assault-in-moscow-idUSKCN0S02BV20151006?fbclid=IwAR33QxyY_CtsIDb7EUZoVYTRDSVmDl_0n7YBOAlTLNVivkOgz7P2y6WOQ_Y\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">quoted by Reuters<\/a>. \u201cOkay, we will intervene,\u201d he said. \u201cSend Qassem Soleimani.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was yet another triumph for the Quds Force commander. Russian fighter jets duly commenced a ferocious bombardment campaign, wreaking unfathomable destruction in East Aleppo, Ghouta, and wherever else their shadows fell, swinging the military pendulum firmly in the regime\u2019s favor, especially after the fall of opposition-held Aleppo in late 2016.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>War crime selfies<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a rare interview with Iranian state TV just weeks before his death, Soleimani spoke of the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah, asserting there was an Israeli plot to forcibly displace south Lebanon\u2019s Shia population, altering the country\u2019s demography so as to eliminate the threat posed by Hezbollah to Israel. By his own account, Soleimani was a key player in the 2006 war, ultimately foiling this Israeli conspiracy to displace the Shia of the South.<\/p>\n<p>Exactly ten years on from that war, social media accounts linked to Iran\u2019s militias in Syria posted photos of Soleimani strolling the streets of East Aleppo after its bloody re-occupation by the regime; photos documenting that that same Soleimani was responsible for the forced displacement of Aleppo\u2019s population, and for altering the city\u2019s demography so as to preserve Iran\u2019s power in Syria and the wider region.<\/p>\n<div class=\"media media-element-container media-colorbox\">\n<div id=\"file-6511\" class=\"file file-image file-image-png\">\n<h2 class=\"element-invisible\"><\/h2>\n<div class=\"content\"><a class=\"colorbox init-colorbox-processed cboxElement\" title=\"Qassem Soleimani walking in East Aleppo, December 2016. - Qassem Solei...\" href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.aljumhuriya.net\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/colorbox_full\/public\/soleimanialeppo.png?ssl=1\" data-colorbox-gallery=\"gallery-file-6511-FLZ2KcjbRU0\" data-cbox-img-attrs=\"{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"media-element file-colorbox\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.aljumhuriya.net\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/colorbox_full\/public\/soleimanialeppo.png?resize=494%2C401&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"494\" height=\"401\" data-delta=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The photos were by no means the first of Soleimani in Syria. Since 2015, he had been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.qasioun-news.com\/ar\/news\/show\/43916?fbclid=IwAR0L1dXzc9NTeewAYXOkKAk82hxezP8FwyJ1T8ZVzLmt4VIbLzNE3kYgjjA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seen<\/a>\u00a0on various frontlines in southern Aleppo Province, where Iran-backed foreign militias continue to enjoy considerable influence to this day. Elsewhere, he appeared in northern Latakia Province in 2015, as well as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/orient-news.net\/ar\/news_show\/134377\/%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85-%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D8%B8%D9%87%D8%B1-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%81-%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9?fbclid=IwAR0Af852VxbhcC53Jsr-_zwCGe5Q\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">northern Hama Province<\/a>\u00a0in 2017. Media reports suggested he had directly overseen numerous battles in south Syria; a suggestion confirmed in a video clip\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=667859573748498\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a>\u00a0by the pro-regime Al Mayadeen TV after his death. He was also seen multiple times in eastern Deir al-Zor Province following regime advances in the area, which Iran deemed vital for its broader regional ambitions, given its proximity to the Iraqi border. It was here that he made his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SGwA0bJH8v0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">final appearance<\/a>\u00a0on film, in July 2019, visiting the town of Al Bukamal, where reports said he was preparing for a potential confrontation with the US. His additional excursions around Syria not captured on camera were innumerable; there was no shortage of symbolism in the fact he was killed while journeying to Baghdad from Damascus.<\/p>\n<p>For years throughout this final period of his life, Soleimani managed a complicated relationship between militias fully loyal to the Iranian regime, on the one hand, and on the other hand a weak government also dependent on Tehran in its turn. Indeed, managing such relationships between powerful militias and weak governments was the essence of Soleimani\u2019s strategy across the region. As for the civilians killed by his forces\u2019 fire, or starved at the hands of his allies, or expelled from their homes with no chance of return, they were merely the collateral damage of Iran\u2019s plans for Syria and the wider Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>Soleimani\u2019s death does not, of course, bring an end to those plans, or to Iranian influence in Syria, though it may herald the beginning of an end. By the same token, while his demise is not sufficient retribution\u2014nor does it provide his victims justice\u2014it has nonetheless offered a modicum of breathing space, even cheer, to the survivors of the hellfire, death, and devastation of which he was among the chief architects.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span lang=\"EN-US\"><strong>The views expressed in this article are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily reflect IWL-FI stand.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Few individuals\u00a0have caused as much sheer human suffering in Syria as Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian warlord assassinated on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13634,"menu_order":460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3678],"tags":[4377],"class_list":["post-13633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria","tag-souleimani-in-syria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - 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