Reports of his death may have been greatly exaggerated — again.
The commander of the military intelligence operations unit of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was widely reported to have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, has apparently surfaced in videos from a rally on Tuesday, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.
And for Brigadier Gen. Esmail Qaani, it isn’t even the first time he’s come back from the supposed dead.
General Qaani, Commander of IRGC Quds Force, seen among Tehran’s rally attendees today following the last night attack on the US Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar.#Iran pic.twitter.com/bOvPaY3SAt
— Iran Nuances (@IranNuances) June 24, 2025
The New York Times — which spelled his name as “Ghaani,” as some Western news outlets do — originally reported the general killed on June 13. It cited two “senior Iranian government officials” as its sources.
That report documented the first day of the Israeli air campaign against Tehran and its nuclear weapons program.
Qaani was the successor to Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani as head of the IRGC’s Quds Force. Soleimani was killed in a targeted drone strike by U.S. forces in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2020, during the first administration of President Donald Trump.
Qaani was reported to have been killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, in October, The Times of Israel reported Wednesday.
And now he appears to be back on the streets, at a rally “celebrating” the largely futile Iranian strike on a U.S. military base in Qatar in retaliation for Trump’s military operation Saturday that bombed Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.
Just as reports of his death rocketed through Middle Eastern news media, the report of his latest sighting lit up social media, too:
Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who was rumored but never confirmed to have been eliminated during the initial strikes against Iran by Israel on June 13, appears to have indeed survived, being seen attending… pic.twitter.com/J8cNDqbF24
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 24, 2025
Esmail Qaani: before and after pic.twitter.com/pgwNMlmtGv
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) June 25, 2025
Some commenters viewed the sighting in the context of rumors that Qaani is actually an agent for Israel. He was reportedly under suspicion by Tehran after Israel assassinated then-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in September.
>get killed in Beirut
>disappear
>reappear
>have a heart attack
>get arrested and interrogated
>get killed again
>appear in public to mog Zio media
>get called a Mossad agentWelcome to the tale of Esmail Qaani pic.twitter.com/IiEvd5pUY2
— ????????™ | (@sayyid_roadman) June 24, 2025
Whether the figure in the video now making the rounds actually is Qaani — alive and well — has not yet been confirmed, but one thing is certain:
It’s the latest twist in the shadow world of one of the Middle East’s most shadowy characters.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.