The new face of Iran's deadly Quds Force is a military veteran with close ties to his assassinated predecessor Qassem Soleimani.
Esmail Ghaani, 62, emerged from the shadows of Iran's paramilitary forces to take over from Soleimani, his longtime friend and fellow veteran of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. One of his likely first duties: Coordinating Iran's plan of revenge against the United States for the Friday morning airstrike targeting Soleimani.
"We are children of war," Ghaani once said of his pal Soleimani. "We are comrades on the battlefield and we have become friends in battle."
His next move remains uncertain, but Ghaani has made no secret in the past of his disdain for the United States.
"If there were no Islamic Republic, the U.S. would have burned the whole region," he once declared.
Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenini, after announcing Ghaani's promotion, called the new leader "one of the most prominent commanders" in the nation and vowed the mission of the Quds Force "will be unchanged from the time of his predecessor."
The Quds Force serves as Iran's external affairs arm, working with armed groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories to extend the nation's reach beyond its borders, according to the Council on Foreign Affairs.
President George W. Bush accused the Quds Force in 2007 of providing explosives to Shia militants to use against American forces, and the Iranian military group dispatched operatives to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. Experts estimate the force is made up to 20,000 members, although the number is fluid.
Unlike Soleimani, Ghaani remained a bit of a mystery during his rise through the ranks. He joined the Revolutionary Guard after the 1979 uprising, and fought in the lengthy conflict after Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980. He later spoke about the religious fervor of Iranian fighters during the war.
"The commander is looking to his soldiers as his children," Ghaani explained. "And in the soldier's point of view, it seems that he received an order from God and he must do that."
