The commander of Iran's Al-Quds unit, Esmail Qaani, was detained in connection with the death of the head of Hezbollah, the Middle East Eye (MEE) website reported. According to his sources, Qaani resigned at the last minute from participating in the meeting of Hezbollah leaders – the building where the commanders' meeting was held was bombed.
The commander of Al-Quds, Iran's elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Esmail Qaani, has been detained and is being interrogated in connection with the death of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike at the end of September, the Middle East Eye (MEE) website reported on Thursday. .
Qaani has not appeared in public since the death of Nasrallah, one of several top leaders financed by Iran terrorist groups killed in Israeli attacks in the last two months.
According to MEE sources, Qaani resigned at the last minute from attending the meeting of Hezbollah leaders and came to Lebanon after Nasrallah's death. The building where the commanders' meeting was held was bombed.
It is unclear where Qaani is now, but most sources report that he is being interrogated by people under the direct supervision of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran is looking for the sources of the leaks
– The Iranians are now trying to determine the scale and source of the leaks, one of the commanders of the terrorist organization interviewed by the portal told MEE. – There are many indications that the source is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but at this stage we cannot be sure – said the commander. However, it is known that Iran and its allies “suffered huge losses,” he added.
Last week, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with CNN that the head of an Iranian unit set up to fight Israeli intelligence was an agent Israeland about 20 agents of this secret service provided Israel with information regarding, among others, Tehran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad also stated that they all managed to escape from Iran and now live in Israel.
Qaani became commander of the Quds Force after being killed by United States their previous leader, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020.
Main photo source: JOAO RELVAS/PAP/EPA