Iran's high-profile commander attends ceremony in Tehran

by IANS |

Tehran, Oct 15 (IANS) The chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force was seen on TV attending a Tuesday ceremony here in the Iranian capital, dismissing media reports that an Israeli attack had brought him down in Beirut.

Footage aired by Iranian state-run IRIB TV showed Esmail Qaani participating in the ceremony held in the morning at Mehrabad International Airport.

The ceremony was for the arrival of the body of senior IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed on September 27 alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a meeting by a massive targeted strike on the Lebanese group's headquarters in Dahieh, a southern suburb of Lebanon's capital Beirut.

Israeli and Western media claimed that Qaani might have been "wounded or killed" in a recent attack by Israel on Beirut.

Speculation about Qaani's condition began after Israel's Channel 12 reported that he might have been caught in an airstrike on Beirut's Dahieh neighbourhood on October 3. The attack reportedly targeted Hashem Safieddine, a Lebanese Shia cleric considered a potential successor to Nasrallah.

Nilforoushan's body was transferred to Tehran for a funeral ceremony on Tuesday, following which he would be taken to his hometown, Isfahan, to be laid to rest.