Who was Hossein Salami, one of Iran’s most powerful men killed in Israel attack?

Israel’s strikes on Iran are unprecedented. On early Friday, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, targeting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. The attack was a big blow to Iran. It killed the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami, local media reported.

“Major General Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was martyred in the Israeli regime’s attack on the IRGC headquarters,” the local Tasnim news agency reported.

The Mehr news agency carried a similar report.

Who was Hossein Salami?

Iranian Major General Hossein Salami was the commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was one of the most influential men in the Islamic Republic.

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Salami was born in 1960 in Golpayegan, Isfahan Province, Iran. He first joined the IRGC in 1980 when the Iran-Iraq war broke out. He joined the Isfahan branch and fought against Iraq from Iranian Kurdistan and was soon promoted to commander.

After the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Salami completed a master’s degree in defence management at the staff college of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. He went on to serve as head of operations at the IRGC joint staff from 1997 to 2005, according to counterterorism.com.

Over the years, he only rose further through the military ranks.

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Salami was appointed deputy commander of the IRGC in 2009 after serving as commander of the IRGC Air Force for three years. On April 21, 2019, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini promoted him to the rank of major general, appointing him commander-in-chief of the IRGC, the report says.

As head of the IRGC, he reported directly to Khamenei.

Why was Hossein Salami a wanted man?

Salami has been a staunch opponent of both Israel and the US. He has been known for his involvement in Iran’s nuclear and military programmes. Since the 2000s, he has been sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council and the United States.

The UNSC was the first to impose sanctions on Salami in December 2006 for his involvement with Iran’s ballistic missile programme. The US government sanctioned Salami in October 2007 under an executive order, which specifically targeted the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters.

The European Union sanctioned Salami along with seven other Iranian officials on April 12, 2021, for their response to the November 2019 demonstrations in Iran, according to counterterrorism.com.

In September 2023, French prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Salami, IRGC Quds Force commander Ismail Ghaani, and Iranian Intelligence Minister Smail Khatib for issuing death threats and justifying terrorism against people supporting Iranian protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, reports NDTV.

In April and October 2024, when Iran launched its first-ever direct military attack on Israel, deploying more than 300 drones and missiles, Salami was the head of the Revolutionary Guard.

In January last year, the commander appeared on IRGC-affiliated media touring an underground missile facility that had been part of Iran’s operations against Israel. The site was manufacturing “new special missiles,” semi-official Iranian media outlet Mehr News reported.

How Salami swore to act against Israel

Amid rising tensions with Israel, Salami said on Thursday, a day before he was killed, that Iran was “fully ready for any scenarios, situations, and circumstances”.

“The enemy thinks it can fight Iran the same way it fights defenceless Palestinians who are under an Israeli siege,” he said, according to the BBC. “We are war-tested and experienced.”

In March, he vowed swift retaliation against those who might attack Iran. “If a threat is carried out, we will respond in the most severe manner – decisive, crushing and devastating.”

When Israel hit Iranian targets in Syria in 2019, Salami said that Iran’s strategy was to wipe “the Zionist regime” off the political map.

With inputs from agencies