Iranian state television has aired footage showing a person resembling Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, attending a memorial ceremony, amid widespread speculation about his whereabouts and fate. Qaani had not been seen publicly in recent days, leading to rumors of his possible death.

Some reports suggested Qaani had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, which targeted top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine. Others speculated he may have suffered a heart attack or was being detained by Iranian authorities on suspicion of espionage. The airing of the footage, which appears to show Qaani at a funeral service in Karbala, Iraq, for a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, General Abbas Nilforoushan, seems to refute these rumors.

Nilforoushan, a key figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)