TEHRAN, July 21 — Six years after a U.S. drone strike killed Major General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport, the Iranian commander’s network — though now under a less centralised hand — continues to shape conflicts across the Middle East. For communities in the region, the legacy of the man who led the Quds Force for more than two decades remains a daily reality of proxy warfare and shifting alliances.
Soleimani commanded the Quds Force, the elite foreign operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, from 1998 until his death. He was widely regarded as the second most powerful figure in Iran after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Under his leadership, the Quds Force provided support for an array of proxy groups: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and numerous Iraqi Shiite militias including Kata’ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba. The United States designated Soleimani a terrorist in 2005. Yet his influence extended well beyond Iran’s borders.
He was instrumental in the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, coordinating operations with Russian and Syrian forces. That role earned him admiration among some governments, even as Western capitals viewed him as a destabilising force.
Death and Aftermath
On January 3, 2020, a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport killed Soleimani alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. President Donald Trump, who ordered the strike, said Soleimani was planning imminent attacks on U.S. diplomats and military personnel. Iran retaliated five days later.
On January 8, 2020, its forces launched ballistic missiles at the Al Asad Airbase in Iraq, injuring over 100 U.S. service members. The strike did not kill any American troops, but it marked a direct military confrontation between the two countries — the first of its kind in decades.
For those tracking regional security, the attack underscored how quickly Soleimani’s death could escalate into open conflict. The fact that neither side chose to escalate further was itself a story of tacit restraint, but the underlying tensions have never fully subsided.
Fragmented Command
Soleimani’s successor, Esmail Qaani, has continued the Quds Force’s operations. But analysts note a more fragmented command structure. Without the single, towering figure of Soleimani, the various proxy groups — from Hezbollah to the Houthis — appear to operate with greater autonomy.
This fragmentation carries its own risks: coordinated action may be harder to achieve, but local commanders now have more room to act independently. The impact on ordinary people in the region — from families in southern Lebanon to residents of Yemen’s port cities — remains significant.
The proxy networks that Soleimani built and that Qaani now manages continue to fight in conflicts that show no sign of winding down. For Asian nations that rely on stable energy routes and trade through the Middle East, the persistence of these armed groups is a source of continued uncertainty. What happens next in the Quds Force’s leadership is uncertain.
But the structure Soleimani left behind — a web of militias and political allies — is likely to endure. For those who live in the shadow of that network, the ripple effects of January 3, 2020, have not yet faded.
