Abdolreza Shahlaei | |
|---|---|
| Nicknames | Hajj Yusef[1] Yusuf Abu-al-Karkh[1] |
| Born | c. 1957 (age 68–69)[1] |
| Allegiance | Iran |
| Branch | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps |
| Service years | 1980–present |
| Rank | Brigadier general[3] |
| Unit | Quds Force |
| Conflicts | Yemeni Civil War |
Abdolreza Shahlaei (Persian:عبدالرضا شهلایی) is an Iranianmilitary officer who serves as the commander of the Yemen division of theQuds Force of theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Shahlaei is classified by the US government as a terrorist for his funding of terror groups and his links to attacks on US troops in Iraq, including a2007 raid that killed five US soldiers inKarbala.[4] Other alleged attacks led by Shahlaei include a failed assassination attempt on the Saudi ambassador in Washington DC,Adel Al-Jubeir.[1] As such, theUS State Department has put a US$15 million bounty on Shahlaei, through theRewards for Justice Program, for information leading to his whereabouts.[2][5]
He was one of the commanders of the Ramadan Base during theIran–Iraq War, responsible for operations outside Iran, and after the fall ofSaddam Hussein in 2003, he went to Iraq with Mohammad Jafari Sahraroudi to plan operations againstU.S. and coalition forces. No record of Abdolreza Shahlaei in the Ramadan Base has been published or made public, and even in the memoirs of the war commanders, the published materials about wartime operations, and the references to all the 57 different units of the IRGC in the war, Abdolreza Shahlaei's name does not appear. Even inAli Khamenei's meetings with the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, no photograph of him can be found.
According to the United States, Abdolreza Shahlaei is one of the most active commanders of the IRGC-QF in the Middle East and has been planning and funding operations to kill U.S. forces for years.
U.S. defense and intelligence officials say he is on the move fromAfghanistan toIraq and fromSyria toYemen, planning and acting against U.S. military and targets. Shahlai is accused of being the main organizer of the January 20, 2007,attack on the U.S. Army's Joint Coordinating Headquarters inKarbala, which killed five U.S. service members and wounded three others. On that day, a total of at least 24 U.S. soldiers were killed in various parts of Iraq in 24 hours, a number of whom were targeted by Iranian-backed militias—the bloodiest day for American troops during the entireIraq War.
As the Quds Force deputy commander, Shahlaei, together with thenIntelligence Minister of IranGholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, met with aHamas delegation headed byKhaled Meshal andMusa Abu Marzouk inTehran in May 2008. After this meeting, there were reports that Iran increased its support to Hamas to $150 million annually. It was allegedly transferred toGaza via theDamascus branch of Bank Melli, a bank associated with the IRGC.[6]
On the night of 3 January 2020, the US military attempted to assassinate Shahlaei via drone strike in conjunction with the assassination of the head of the Quds ForceQasem Soleimani in theBaghdad International Airport airstrike. The drone strike inSana'a, where Shahlaei was based, failed to kill him but did lead to the death of lower-ranked IRGC member Mostafa Mohammad Mirzaei. This is the first combat death the Quds Force has acknowledged in Yemen.[7]
On 10 January, the US State Department admitted to the attempted assassination of Shahlaei but did not announce it on the same date as the Soleimani assassination because the Shahlaei assassination was unsuccessful. This led to speculation the 3 January drone strikes were wider decapitation hits aimed at taking out the Quds Force leadership.[8][9]
An Islamic Republic News Agency report initially calledCOVID-19 victimHasan Irlu a repatriated Qods Corps officer and Iranian envoy to Yemen, Shahlaei.[10][11]
