March 17 (UPI) -- Israel said Tuesday it killed Basij paramilitary force commander Gholamreza Soleimani in an overnight airstrike in Tehran.
Specifics on the strike were scant, but The Times of Israel reported the Israel Defense Forces targeted Soleimani at a camp he had recently established in Tehran after the paramilitary's headquarters were destroyed.
Established in 1980, the Basij is a volunteer paramilitary reserve force under Iran's influential Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. The force -- which the website for Iran's supreme leader says consists of millions of members -- was sanctioned by the United States for human rights abuses in 2011 and designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2018.
Soleimani was appointed in 2019 to lead the Basij, which has been accused of helping suppress protests inside Iran through violence, mass arrests and force against demonstrators.
Related
