WANA (Mar 17) – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has officially confirmed the assassination of Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij Organization, describing his death as the result of “terrorist attack by the American-Zionist enemy.”

 

In a statement released late on March 16, the IRGC announced the death of Soleimani, one of the Islamic Republic’s senior security figures, and extended its condolences to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Mojtaba Khamenei, the Iranian people, members of the Basij paramilitary force, and the general’s family.

 

The statement portrayed Soleimani as a key architect of the Basij’s organizational and operational development, saying he had played a “strategic and irreplaceable” role in modernizing the force’s grassroots and mobilization structure during his tenure as its commander.

 

According to the IRGC, Soleimani had served the Islamic Republic for decades, from the Iran-Iraq War through to recent years, and was deeply involved in expanding the Basij’s role beyond security functions into social and economic initiatives, including reconstruction campaigns, poverty relief, and support for vulnerable communities.

 

The IRGC also described the assassination as evidence of the Basij’s significance in what it called the broader confrontation with the United States, Israel, and their regional allies. It argued that the attack underscored the force’s central role in recent military and security developments.

 

In one of the statement’s most forceful sections, the IRGC warned that those responsible for the assassination would face retribution, saying Basij members would not abandon efforts to avenge senior commanders and other forces killed in the ongoing struggle against Washington and Tel Aviv.

 

The statement concluded by asserting that the deaths of Iranian commanders and affiliated forces would not weaken the country’s resolve, but instead strengthen what it called the determination of Iran and its resistance front to continue confronting the United States and Israel.