Iranian general Ghasem Soleimani, head of that nation’s Qods Force, has long been a target of American interest and unhappiness.
And for good reason.
Qods Force, which in many ways is the Iranian equivalent of our special operations forces, has been a big player in Middle Eastern turmoil.
But in the current fight against Islamic State, the U.S. is increasingly finding mutual, if uneasy interest, with Soleimani and his troops.
The Associated Press just ran an interesting piece laying out Qods Force efforts on behalf of the Iraqi military against the Islamic State onslaught.
The U.S. has awkwardly found itself on the same side as Iran and Hezbollah in the war against the Islamic State group, which rampaged across much of northern and western Iraq in June. While U.S. military advisers have been coordinating coalition airstrikes from within heavily fortified bases, Soleimani and his commanders are on the front lines and would assume a key role in the retaking of major cities.
A little more than a year ago, Army Maj. Gen. Michael Nagata, in his first interview since taking command of Special Operations Command Central, told me that Soleimani had long been on his radar screen. His response wound up on the cutting room floor because of space, but after reading the AP piece, I figured it was worth noting.
“I never met the man,” said Nagata, who is in charge of U.S. special operations forces in the U.S. Central Command region. “He is someone that we have deep concerns over, but we’ve had those concerns for a very long time.”
My conversation with Nagata, the man who will oversee training of moderate Syrian rebel forces selected to fight against Islamic State in Syria, came shortly after a fascinating New Yorker profile on Soleimani.
That profile “grabbed a great deal of attention,” said Nagata, but “there is nothing really new in it. We have known about Soleimani for many years. He is a leader with the forces that Iran is using to do these very unhelpful and harmful things across the region. Predictably, he is someone of great interest to us and someone we are not very happy about.”
haltman@tampatrib.com