Ismail Qaani
Esmail Qaani (also rendered as Ismail Qaani; ; 8 August 1957) is an Iranian brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who serves as the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, an elite special operations force responsible for extraterritorial operations. Qaani succeeded Qasem Soleimani as Quds Force commander after Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020. ''The New York Times'' reported that Israel Defense Forces airstrikes killed Qaani on 13 June 2025 during Israel's initial attacks against Iran in the Iran–Israel war, yet he was seen alive during the ceasefire celebrations in Tehran. Early life Qaani was born in Mashhad, a pilgrimage city and the second most populous in Iran. He joined the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1980. Military career During the Iran–Iraq War, Qaani led the 5th Nasr Brigade and 21st Imam Reza Armored Brigade. In 1981, he received his military training in Imam Ali Officers' Academy in Tehran. The war was wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sardar (IRGC)
Sardar (), roughly equivalent to "General", is the honorific title used for Officer (armed forces), officers of highest military ranks, high rank, ranking Brigadier General, Second Brigadier General and higher in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and commanders of the Law Enforcement Force of Islamic Republic of Iran (Police) who have previously served in the former military or the Islamic Revolution Committees, as well as the commanders of the disbanded Jihad of Construction. Sardars are often graduates of the IRGC University of Command and Staff, University of Command and Staff. The title is equivalent to "''Amir (Iranian Army), Amir''" or "''Timsar''" in the Islamic Republic of Iran Army. Ranks being addressed by the title include: See also * Rank insignia of the Iranian military References Titles in Iran Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sardars, {{iran-mil-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tehran
Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9.8 million in the city as of 2025, and 16.8 million in the metropolitan area, Tehran is the List of largest cities of Iran, most populous city in Iran and Western Asia, the Largest metropolitan areas of the Middle East, second-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East after Cairo, and the 24th most populous metropolitan area in the world. Greater Tehran includes several municipalities, including, Karaj, Eslamshahr, Shahriar, Tehran province, Shahriar, Qods, Iran, Qods, Malard, Golestan, Tehran, Golestan, Pakdasht, Qarchak, Nasimshahr, Parand, Pardis, Andisheh and Fardis. In the classical antiquity, part of the territory of present-day Tehran was occupied by Rhages (now Ray, Iran, Ray), a prominent Medes, Median city almost entirely des ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rahim Safavi
Yahya "Rahim" Safavi (, born 1952) is an Iranian military commander who served as the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Currently , Safavi is serving as a senior military advisor to the leader of the Islamic revolution. Additionally, he has assumed the role of head of Defense and Security Commission within the council. Early life Safavi was born in 1952 in the city of Isfahan, Iran, to an Azerbaijani family. Career Safavi was one of the leaders of the Iran–Iraq War. During the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, he played a key role in the uprising in Herat in November 2001, where American, Iranian and Northern Alliance troops supported a local uprising against the Taliban. He served as the deputy commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps until 1997 when he was appointed its commander, replacing Mohsen Rezaee in 1997. He was replaced as commander of the IRGC by Mohammad Ali Jafari, former director of the Strategic Studies Center of the IRGC on 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)
The 1996–2001 Afghan Civil War, also known as the Third Afghan Civil War, took place between the Taliban's conquest of Kabul and their establishing of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on 27 September 1996, and the US and UK invasion of Afghanistan on 7 October 2001: a period that was part of the Afghan Civil Wars that had started in 1989, and also part of the conflict (in wider sense) in Afghanistan that had started in 1978. The Islamic State of Afghanistan government remained the recognized government of Afghanistan by most of the international community. The Taliban's Islamic Emirate government, however, received recognition from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. The defense minister of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Massoud, created the United Front (Northern Alliance) in opposition to the Taliban. The United Front included all Afghan ethnicities: Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Turkmens, some Pashtuns and others. During the conflict, the Tali ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Taliban
, leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) , leader2_title = Governing body , leader2_name = Leadership Council of Afghanistan, Leadership Council , clans = Primarily Pashtuns;{{Cite book , last=Giustozzi , first=Antonio , url=https://archive.org/details/decodingnewtalib00anto/page/249 , title=Decoding the new Taliban: insights from the Afghan field , publisher=Columbia University Press , year=2009 , isbn=978-0-231-70112-9 , pag249}{{Cite book , last=Clements , first=Frank A. , title=Conflict in Afghanistan: An Encyclopedia (Roots of Modern Conflict) , publisher=ABC-CLIO , year=2003 , isbn=978-1-85109-402-8 , page=219 minority Tajiks and Uzbeks , ideology = Majority: * Deobandi jihadism{{cite book, last=Maley, first=William, title=Fundamentalism Rebor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Northern Alliance
The Northern Alliance ( ''Da Šumāl E'tilāf'' or ''Ettehād Šumāl''), officially known as the United National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( ''Jabha-ye Muttahid-e barāye Afğānistān''), was a military alliance of groups that operated between early 1992 and 2001 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was formed by government defectors such as Ahmad Shah Massoud, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Rashid Dostum, Abdul Momim and Ali Mazari. It consisted mainly of ethnicities from northern Afghanistan, such as Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and Turkmens, as opposed to the Taliban. At that time, many non-Pashtun Northerners originally with the Republic of Afghanistan led by Mohammad Najibullah became disaffected with Pashtun Khalqist Afghan Army officers holding control over non-Pashtun militias in the North. The alliance's capture of Mazar-i-Sharif and more importantly the supplies kept there crippled the Afghan military and began the end of Najibullah's government.R ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Nation
''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper that closed in 1865, after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Thereafter, the magazine proceeded to a broader topic, ''The Nation''. An important collaborator of the new magazine was its Literary Editor Wendell Phillips Garrison, son of William. He had at his disposal his father's vast network of contacts. ''The Nation'' is published by its namesake owner, The Nation Company, L.P., at 520 8th Ave New York, NY 10018. It has news bureaus in Washington, D.C., London, and South Africa, with departments covering architecture, art, corporations, defense, environment, films, legal affairs, music, peace and disarmament, poetry, and the United Nations. Circulation peaked at 187,000 in 2006 but dropped t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country#Countries, second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is List of cities in Pakistan by population, its largest city and financial centre. Pakistan is the List of countries and dependencies by area, 33rd-largest country by area. Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south, the Gulf of Oman on the southwest, and the Sir Creek on the southeast, it shares land borders with India to the east; Afghanistan to the west; Iran to the southwest; and China to the northeast. It shares a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman, and is separated from Tajikistan in the northwest by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor. Pakistan is the site of History of Pakistan, several ancient cultures, including the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ashgabat is the capital and largest city. It is one of the six independent Turkic states. With a population over 7 million, Turkmenistan is the 35th most-populous country in Asia and has the lowest population of the Central Asian republics while being one of the most sparsely populated nations on the Asian continent. Turkmenistan has long served as a thoroughfare for several empires and cultures. Merv is one of the oldest oasis-cities in Central Asia, and was once among the biggest cities in the world. It was also one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1925, Turkmenistan be ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran border, west, Turkmenistan to the Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border, northwest, Uzbekistan to the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border, north, Tajikistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, northeast, and China to the Afghanistan–China border, northeast and east. Occupying of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains Afghan Turkestan, in the north and Sistan Basin, the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's capital and largest city. Demographics of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's population is estimated to be between 36 and 50 million. Ancient history of Afghanistan, Human habitation in Afghanistan dates to the Middle Paleolithic era. Popularly referred to as the graveyard of empire ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Khorasan Province
Khorasan ( ; also transcribed as Khurasan, Xorasan and Khorassan), also called Traxiane during Hellenistic and Parthian Empire, Parthian times, was a Provinces of Iran, province in northeastern Iran until September 2004, when it was divided into three new provinces: North Khorasan, South Khorasan, and Razavi Khorasan. Khorasan historically referred to a much larger area, comprising the east and the northeast of the Persian Empire. The name ''Khorāsān'' is Persian language, Persian and means "where the sun arrives from". The name was first given to the eastern province of Persian Empire, Persia during the Sasanian Empire and was used from the Late Middle Ages in distinction to neighbouring Transoxiana.Svat Soucek''A History of Inner Asia'' Cambridge University, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p.4C. Edmund Bosworth, (2002)'CENTRAL ASIA iv. In the Islamic Period up to the Mongols'''Encyclopaedia Iranica'' (online)C. Edmund Bosworth, (2011)'MĀ WARĀʾ AL-NAHR'''Encyclopaedia I ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Al Jazeera Media Network
Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media media conglomerate, conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which provide coverage of regional and international news, along with analysis, documentaries, and talk shows. In addition to its television channels, Al Jazeera has expanded its digital presence with platforms such as AJ+, catering to younger audiences with formats and content tailored for online consumption. Al Jazeera broadcasts in over 150 countries and territories, and has a large global audience of over 430 million people. Originally conceived as a satellite TV channel delivering Arabic news and Current affairs (news format), current affairs, it has since evolved into a multifaceted media network encompassing various platforms such as online, specialized television channels in numerous languages, and more. The network's news ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |