US arrests relatives of top Iranian commander assassinated in 2020 strike on Baghdad

AFP: Two family members of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in 2020, have been arrested in the United States after their residency permits were rescinded, the State Department said on Saturday.

“Last night, the niece and grandniece of deceased Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qassem Soleimani were arrested by federal agents following Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s termination of their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status,” a department statement said.

It identified the niece as Hamideh Soleimani Afshar. Her daughter was not named.

Both “are now in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the statement said, without specifying their whereabouts.

Soleimani, who led the IRGC’s foreign operations arm, was assassinated in a US drone strike while he was in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020 — the final year of President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.

“As identified by both press reporting and her own social media commentary, Soleimani Afshar is an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran,” the US State Department said.

Soleimani Afshar’s husband has also been barred from entering the United States, the statement said.

The daughter and son-in-law of another assassinated Iranian official, security chief Ali Larijani, have also had their legal status terminated.

Both “are no longer in the United States and are barred from future entry,” the statement said.

Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was assassinated on March 17 in an Israeli strike.

“The Trump administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” Rubio said in a post on X.