Is Iran’s top military chief a TRAITOR? Rumours grow that missing Esmail Qaani is behind Israel’s incredible terror cull
Qaani hasn't been seen since an October 4 bunker strike in Beirut
Nick Parker, 10:49, 11 Oct 20241/2
THE disappearance of Iran’s top military commander has sparked shock claims that he is the traitor behind Israel’s incredible cull of its terrorist enemies.
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, 67, is the terror state’s most powerful military figure after legendary strongman Qasem Soleimani was assassinated by a US strike.
Qaani has not been heard of - even by his family - since an October 4 strike on a bunker in Beirut where he was believed to be meeting Hezbollah top brass.
But sources claimed today that Qaani was being interrogated while under house arrest -and was under suspicion of being Israel’s top spy.
Qaani was believed to have died alongside Hezbollah heir apparent Hashem Saffeieddine, 60, in last week’s bunker blast.
But sources in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran have since revealed was not at the meeting - and dodged another a week earlier in which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was blitzed.
And his vanishing act was last night sparking consternation across Iran’s panicked military as rumours spread that he had turned on the evil Islamist regime.
Qaani leads Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force and has been confirmed to be “alive and in good health” by the regime.
He is also being probed over the September 27 bunker buster assassination of Nasrallah, 64.
Nasrallah’s death sparked a desperate hunt for Israel’s mole by the Guard Corps - whose investigators are now said to suspect their own leader.
Multiple sources said that Qaani and his team are under lockdown as interrogators demand answers.
Qaani became head of the Quds Force - the IRGC’s overseas unit - after the US killing of its previous leader, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020.
Wiping out Hezbollah leadership is 'most devastating attack of its kind in history' - Iran is next
Israel has succeeded in wiping out dozens of enemy commanders across the region with intelligence led assassinations and its incredible pager and walkie-talkie bomb blitz.
They included Safieddine, who is believed to have been killed at a meeting of Hezbollah’s Shura Council in Beirut which Qanni was due to attend.
Within minutes of arriving, his bunker beneath tower blocks in southern Beirut was hammered by multiple strikes which demolished the neighbourhood.
Qaani was, at first, thought to have been killed or wounded but has since emerged that he pulled out of the meeting.
On Tuesday, Iraj Masjedi, deputy commander of the Quds Force and former Iranian ambassador to Baghdad said Qaani was “in good health and is carrying out his daily duties”.
The commander of an armed faction close to Iran said: “The Iranians have serious suspicions that the Israelis have infiltrated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, especially those working in the Lebanese arena, so everyone is currently under investigation.
“Nothing is certain at the moment. The investigations are still ongoing and all possibilities are open.”
Iran's probe into Nasrallah's death have also focused on the final movements of Quds force commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who died alongside the terror chief.
Nilforoushan had only just taken over from Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in another Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syrai in April.
Sources said Nasrallah had been outside Beirut’s southern suburbs the night before his killing, but returned to the area to meet with Nilforoushan in a secret operations room.
Nilforoushan, who had flown from Beirut from Tehran earlier, was taken directly from the plane to the bunker beneath in the Haret Hreik suburb.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30996355/irans-top-military-chief-a-traitor-esmail-qaani/