Deputy Commander Of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Forces Calls Brigadier General Esmail Qa'ani In Good Health

Iran's Quds IRGC Force Commander Brigadier General Esmaeil Qa'ani. (Source: IRNA/Marzieh Soleimani)

JAKARTA - The commander of the Quds Forces, the elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Esmail Qa'ani is in good health, said Deputy Commander of the Quds Force Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi.

"He is in good health and carries out his activities. Some people asked us to issue a statement, not necessary," Brigadier General Masjedi was quoted as saying by state media referring to Qa'ani.

As previously reported, Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmail Qa'ani, who traveled to Lebanon after the assassination of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last month in Israeli airstrikes, has not been heard from reports since the attack in Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials said.

One official said Brigadier General Qa'ani was on the southern outskirts of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, during the reported attack targeting senior official Hezbollah Hashem Safieddine, but said Brigadier General Qa'ani did not meet Safieddine.

The Iranian official said Iran and Hezbollah had not been able to contact Qaani, who was appointed by Tehran as head of the Quds Forces, after the United States killed its predecessor Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

Meanwhile, a second Iranian official also said Qaani had traveled to Lebanon after the assassination of Nasrallah and Iranian authorities had not been able to contact her since the attack on Safieddine, which is widely expected to be Hezbollah's next head.

Separately, when asked about Qaani's report that she may have been killed in an Israeli attack on Beirut, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said the results of the attack were still in the assessment stage.

Israel has attacked several targets in Dahiyeh in their bid to fight the Lebanese Hezbollah group backed by Iran.