The daughter of Iran’s top anti-terror commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was martyred in a US assassination drone strike earlier in the year, has hailed her father as the “conqueror of hearts” and a highly charismatic field commander.
Zeinab Soleimani said in an exclusive interview with Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network on Tuesday that what distinguished her father was that he was a "strong military field commander with very strong charisma, clever ... and besides that he had a remarkably compassionate and affectionate heart as well."
Zeinab said the top commander “used to capture the hearts of people,” and that, “My father used to find his way through people's hearts, especially those who worked with them and those close to him."
General Soleimani’s daughter underlined that his father’s field presence alongside other military forces was the result of his “belief in the necessity of standing by the oppressed.”
“He did not differentiate between the Lebanese, Syrian, Iranian, Palestinian or Yemeni people. Any aggression against people, their money and their honor was a red line for him,” Zeinab told the al-Mayadeen television network.
She also said that the issue of Palestine and the Palestinian people was "very important” to General Soleimani, and stressed that "he used all his capabilities to serve the Palestinian cause and the result is that we see today the strength of the Palestinian resistance movement."
Zeinab concluded that those behind the brutal assassination of General Soleimani would pay the price "in the most horrific possible way."
The US military assassinated General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions by targeting their vehicle outside Baghdad International Airport on January 3.
The cowardly act of terror was carried out under the direction of US President Donald Trump, with the Pentagon taking responsibility for the strike.
A senior Iranian official said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has drawn up a list of 48 individuals against whom legal action will be taken in relation to the assassination of General Soleimani.
Both martyred commanders were viewed by the world's freedom-seeking people as heroes who risked their lives taking on Daesh, the world’s most notorious terrorist group, on the battlefield. They played a key part in defeating the terror outfit.
Several million people attended the funeral processions held for the commanders in the Iraqi cities of Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf as well as the Iranian cities of Ahvaz, Mashhad, Tehran, Qom and Kerman.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned soon after the atrocity about a pending “harsh revenge” for the brutal assassination.
The IRGC fired volleys of ballistic missiles at two US bases in Iraq on January 8. According to the US Defense Department, more than 100 American forces suffered “traumatic brain injuries” during the counterstrikes. The Corps, however, says Washington uses the term to mask the number of the Americans who perished during the retaliation.
Iran has also issued an arrest warrant and asked Interpol for help in detaining Trump, who ordered the assassination, and several other US military and political leaders behind the strike.
Anti-American sentiments have been running high in Iraq after the two senior commanders were assassinated in Baghdad, with Iraqi lawmakers unanimously passing a bill on January 5 that mandated the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq.
Iraqi resistance groups have pledged to take up arms against US forces if Washington fails to comply with the parliamentary order.