According to the Jerusalam post, as Iran finds itself at war with the US and Israel, his fate has once again become the subject of intense speculation. Unverified claims circulating online allege that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has detained or even executed the Quds Force commander on suspicion of spying for Israel.
“Esmail Qaani, head of Iran’s Quds Force has been executed by IRGC. He has survived all assassination attempts so far & was even with Khamenei during US-ISRAEL bombing but escaped. Earlier, he was taken into custody by the IRGC on suspicion of being a Mossad agent,” said one X account. The same claim appeared across several other social media profiles, none offering evidence.
Mr Qaani, 67, assumed leadership of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force in January 2020 after the US drone strike in Baghdad that killed his predecessor, . The unit oversees Iran’s foreign operations and built the network of regional allies and militias often referred to as the “Axis of Resistance”.
During his tenure, that network has suffered devastating losses. , the long-time leader of Hezbollah, is dead. has been assassinated. Dozens of senior Iranian commanders have been eliminated in targeted strikes.
Most dramatically, a joint US-Israeli operation on Saturday reportedly killed Iran’s supreme leader, , along with several senior figures in the country’s security establishment. Mr Qaani was not named among the dead.
His repeated survival has fuelled suspicion in some quarters. Over the past two years, regional outlets citing unnamed security sources have reported that he was close to locations targeted in multiple strikes that killed high-ranking Iranian officials.
During the 12-day Iran-Israel war last year, several outlets declared him dead before he reappeared days later at a public event in Tehran, dressed in civilian clothes and a baseball cap. A similar episode occurred in October 2024, when reports of his death were followed by claims that he had been interrogated and briefly isolated amid an internal investigation into security breaches.
After Israel demonstrated deep penetration of Hezbollah’s ranks, enabling it to eliminate much of the group’s leadership, Iranian authorities launched a formal probe into possible intelligence failures. Regional media reports at the time suggested Mr Qaani and members of his team were placed under temporary isolation for questioning.
Israel previously published a list of Iranian and Iran-linked officials it sought to eliminate. Over the weekend, that list was declared “complete”. Mr Qaani’s name did not appear on it.
For now, there has been no official confirmation from Tehran regarding his status. In the absence of verifiable information, speculation continues to swirl online, adding another layer of intrigue to the story of a commander who, time and again, appears to outlive the chaos surrounding him.See_More…