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Iranian Quds Force Leader, Commanding Iraqi Forces Against ISIS, Alarms Washington
(Fox News) James Rosen - Maj.-Gen. Qasem Suleimani, the leader of Iran's Quds Force - the special operations wing of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - was twice designated a terrorist by the U.S. government and is considered responsible for up to 20% of American casualties in the Iraq war. Suleimani is today operating alongside senior Iraqi officials in the effort to reclaim Tikrit from ISIS control, underscoring both the expanding influence of Iran on the central Iraqi government and the increasingly critical role of Shi'ite militiamen, thought to be operating under Quds command. Of the forces advancing on Tikrit, two-thirds are believed to be Shi'ite militiamen loyal to Iran. Ali Alfoneh, an Iranian-born scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, cast the involvement of the Quds Force in the ISIS conflict as reflecting a larger trend in Iranian society: its slow transformation from a radical Islamic theocracy to a military dictatorship, with the IRGC assuming ever greater powers.