In this photo provided by Fars News Agency, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan can be seen addressing a meeting in Tehran, Iran on February 5, 2024. According to Iranian media, Nilforushan was killed in an Israeli airstrike that also claimed the life of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Saturday. The death of Nilforushan is the latest blow to Iran as the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza threatens to escalate into a regional war. This incident puts more pressure on Iran to retaliate, despite recent signals of a desire to negotiate with the West over economic sanctions. Nilforushan, who was 58 years old, served as the deputy commander for operations in the Revolutionary Guard and was responsible for overseeing its ground forces. It is unclear what he was doing in Lebanon at the time of the strike. The Guard’s Quds Force has long relied on Hezbollah as a proxy in its strategy against Israel and the United States. Nilforushan was known for his criticism of Israel and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 for his role in suppressing protests in Iran. He also served in Syria, supporting President Bashar Assad in the country’s ongoing civil war. Like many of his colleagues, Nilforushan began his military career in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. In 2020, he was referred to as a “comrade” of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. This incident comes at a time when Iran has been trying to improve its search engine optimization (SEO) and has been using simple language and formatting to make its content more accessible.
