Thread by @arash_tehran

Brief timeline of Qassem Soleimani's 62 years of life #Thread

1957 -- born in a tribal Persian-speaking village of Rabor County, southern Kerman province.

1970 -- Downtrodden family meant he joined a cousin in moving to provincial capital of Kerman to work construction.

1975 -- Late-teen Soleimani finds job in Kerman Water Organization. He was something of a local tough, joined the local gym, was not particular religious.

1976 or 77 -- Ends up in circles around Reza Kamyab, a low-level cleric from Gonabad who was an opposition activist. Like many youngsters, he sometimes helps out, without being very political.

May, 1979 -- Shortly after the revolution, IRGC is formed, recruiting youngsters all around and Soleimani joins in.

Later in 1979 -- Soleimani is sent on one of IRGC's first mission: the Mahabad expedition, drowning the leftist and Kurdish nationalists in western Iran in blood.

The civil war in Western Iran preceded the war with Iraq and schooled many pro-regime fighters.

September 22, 1980 -- War with Iraq breaks out.

1981 -- Soleimani is enlisted on the Soosangerd front in the war with Iraq.

November 11, 1981 to December 6, 1981 — Soleimani takes part in Operation Tariq al-Qods (Way to Jerusalem) liberating Bostan from Iraqi forces, impressing commanders.

March 3-30, 1982 — Soleimani in operation Fath al-Mobin liberating Dezfoul and Dehloran from Iraqi forces.

February and March, 1984 --Soleimani in Operation Khaybar, attempting to take over Basra, Iraq (Iran repeatedly fails)

1984 -- Ahmad Soleimani, cousin who had gone to Kerman with him for construction work in their early teens, is killed in the war with Iraq.Deep personal affect

1985 -- Soleimani has by now risen as head of the brigade "41 Sarallah," mostly from Kerman province, many tribals. He's showed himself to be a capable and ingenue commander. Hr is praised for opposing rash decisions.

June 30 to July 10, 1986 — Soleimani takes part in Operation Karbala I, helps liberate the western city of Mehran from Saddam's forces

January -- March, 1987 -- Soleimani takes part in the disastrous Karbala V Operation, Iranian massive offensive to take territory in Iraq.

June and July 1987 — Soleimani in Operation Nasr IV, he collaborates with Iraqi Kurdish forces of PUK and Jalal Talabani. Their alliance is formed in blood. Iraqis use chemical forces against Soleimani's forces. (Iraqi forces use chemical agents against him)

June 26, 1987 -- Soleimani and his brigade heroically breaks Iraqi encirclement.

July 20, 1987 -- UN Security Council Resolution 598 asks for an end to Iran-Iraq War. Iran fights on.

March to July 1988 -- Soleimani fights in all disastrous Iranian offensives that go nowhere.

July 18, 1988 — Iran accepts the UNSC 598, it is seen as a massive humiliation and Ayatollah Khomeini compares it to drinking a "chalice of poison"

1988 - 1990s -- in the years of post-war, post-Khomeini reconstruction, Ayatollah Rafsanjani (a leading war leader) becomes president. Many war veterans see his penchant for capitalist reconstruction as a betrayal of revolutionary values.

-- Soleimani remains on war footing. He goes to his native Kerman province to fight drug lords on the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. His tribal background is assumed to help. It also means he becomes an expert on dealing with the unruly Iran-Afghan border.

Late 1997 (early 1998) — Soleimani is made head of the nascent Quds Force, an integral section of the IRGC, tasked with interventions abraod

August 8, 1998 - Taliban massacres Iranian diplomats in Mazar Sharif. A galvanizing moment.

I'll stop here as his subsequent history is better known.

He really rises to become who he is in mid to late 200os by commanding Iranian forces in Iraq and helping reconciliation between Iraqi state, rival Shia Iraqis and Kurd Iraqis.

In 2011 he is made a Major General, a Sarlashkar.

In the years after the Arab revolution, Iran tries to increase its intervention in the Arab world, via its new foothold in Iraq and its older foothold in Syria and Lebanon (which had a very different dynamic.)

Soleimani becomes the major player that he is and, particularly after he is hyped up in the Western media, he becomes a household name in Iran and a new war hero for generations that now had little connections to Iran-Iraq war heroes.

His appeal cuts across society and is not limited to regime supporters. He is seen by many as a national hero. But it is also not as wide as some claim. In the last few years, increasing hatred against the regime meant that even figures like him were not as popular.