Gholamreza Soleimani

Soleimani commanded the Basij paramilitary for six years and was an Iran-Iraq War veteran. The Basij is the IRGC's domestic enforcement Arm: the force that mans checkpoints, enforces curfews and suppresses protests. Under his command, the Basij was restructured into 31 autonomous provincial commands capable of operating independently if central command was destroyed.

Gholamreza Soleimani was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tehran on 16 March 2026, found in a makeshift tent encampment rather than headquarters, indicating senior Iranian commanders had dispersed to evade targeting. He died in the same strike that killed national security chief Ali Larijani. His deputy Seyyed Karishi was also killed. He was the third senior figure to die in 48 hours.

His death was part of a systematic Israeli Decapitation campaign that killed four senior Iranian figures in one week, culminating in the loss of approximately 300 Basij field commanders in a single overnight strike shortly after. He is not related to Qasem Soleimani, the IRGC Quds Force commander killed by the US in 2020.