Qassem Soleimani
Qassem SoleimaniReuters

A Syrian monitoring group and a security source on Wednesday confirmed that Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' (IRGC) elite Qods Force, was indeed wounded in recent days.

A security source on the ground told AFP that the head of the covert Qods Force that conducts foreign terror operations "was injured a few days ago" in the southwest of Aleppo province.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also confirmed the reports.

Soleimani was "lightly injured three days ago in the Al-Eis area in the south of Aleppo province," Rahman told AFP.

The statements confirm reports in recent days that claimed Soleimani had been seriously wounded in Aleppo along with two other companions by a TOW anti-tank rocket, while fighting to prop up Bashar al-Assad's regime.

He was transferred back to Tehran where he was hospitalized according to the reports - reports which the IRGC firmly denied.

The reports further revealed that a high-ranking unnamed brigade leader of the Guards' elite Qods Force took over command of Iran's battle in Syria in place of Soleimani.

Soleimani, 58, is listed as a terrorist by the US, and is one of several Iranian officials targeted by a 2007 UN travel ban because of their links to Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs. However, the sanctions against him were lifted in the controversial nuclear deal, which listed him by name as having sanctions removed.

The Qods Force commander has also taken a direct role in fighting the US and killing American soldiers, having trained Shi'ite militias to fight against American forces in Iraq. In just one example from 2007, a unit of his Qods Force together with Hezbollah terrorists abducted and murdered four American soldiers in Iraq.

Former CIA head Gen. David Petraeus warned in March that Iran is a greater danger than Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, recalling how Soleimani fought against the US there.