Analysis: Slain Quds Force Commander 'Irreplaceable' For Iran
- By RFE/RL
The U.S. air strike in Iraq that killed the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force took out a man seen as Tehran's "second-most powerful man." Speaking on January 3 in Prague, the director of Radio Farda, RFE/RL's Persian Service, Mehdi Parpanchi, called Qasem Soleimani "irreplaceable," in part because of his close connections with Iranian military proxies throughout the Middle East.