Qasem Soleimani (Persian: قاسم سلیمانی, romanized: Qâsem Soleymâni; 11 March 1957 – 3 January 2020) was an Iranian military officer who served as the 2nd commander of the Quds Force from March 1998 until his assassination by the United States in January 2020. He was described as "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East" and a "genius of asymmetric warfare1". Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen said Soleimani's strategies had "personally tightened a noose around Israel's neck". In his later years, he was considered by some analysts to be the right-hand man of the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and the second-most powerful person in Iran behind Khamenei. For attacks orchestrated or attempted against Americans and other targets abroad, Soleimani was personally sanctioned by the United Nations and the European Union, and was designated as a terrorist by the United States in 2005. Soleimani was assassinated in a targeted drone strike ordered by U.S. president Donald Trump on 3 January 2020 in Baghdad, Iraq. Iranian government officials publicly mourned Soleimani's death and launched missiles against U.S. military bases in Iraq, wounding 110 American troops. Iranian outlets subsequently represented Soleimani as a national hero.