Major General Hossein Salami, the Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike that targeted military and nuclear facilities across Tehran.
Born in 1960 in the city of Golpayegan, in central Iran, Salami rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most powerful military figures in the Islamic Republic. He joined the IRGC in September 1980 following the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War. Initially assigned to the IRGC’s Isfahan branch, he served in Iranian Kurdistan and was quickly promoted through the ranks, eventually commanding both the Karbala and 14th Imam Hussein divisions. Later, he was appointed to lead the IRGC’s naval Nouh headquarters.
After the war ended in 1988, Salami pursued advanced military education, earning a master’s degree in defense management from the Islamic Republic of Iran Army’s staff college. He then held several strategic roles, including head of operations at the IRGC Joint Staff from 1997 to 2005.
In the mid-2000s, Salami commanded the IRGC Air Force (2005–2009), a position that drew the attention of international watchdogs due to his involvement in Iran’s ballistic missile development. As a result, he was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council in 2006. The United States followed suit in 2007, designating him under Executive Order 13382 for his alleged role in weapons proliferation. The European Union later sanctioned him in April 2021 for his involvement in the violent suppression of nationwide protests in November 2019.
Salami was promoted to deputy commander of the IRGC in 2009. On April 21, 2019, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed him Commander-in-Chief, replacing Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari. In this role, Salami became a hardline voice on Iran’s military posture, particularly regarding the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. He frequently vowed to retaliate against perceived foreign threats and claimed Iran’s military deterrence was reshaping the balance of power in the Middle East.
Following a deadly car bombing that killed 27 IRGC members in February 2019, Salami declared that Iran would “break” the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. He was also known for statements predicting the fall of the Saudi regime and claiming that Western dominance over the Muslim world had come to an end. After a 2019 Israeli strike in Syria, Salami asserted that Iran’s strategy was to erase the “Zionist regime” from the political map.
Salami continued to occupy center stage in Iran’s military and ideological messaging, boasting of Iran’s strategic depth and military capabilities. He championed the view that Iran had evolved into a regional superpower on the cusp of global significance.
In September 2023, Salami was named – along with Quds Force Commander Esmail Ghaani and Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatibin – in a criminal complaint filed by French prosecutors. The complaint, brought by six Iranian and Franco-Iranian plaintiffs, accused them of issuing death threats and inciting terrorism against activists supporting the Mahsa Amini protests.
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