Iran's popular General Soleimani became an icon by targeting US

For Iranians whose icons since the Islamic Revolution have been stern-faced clergy, General Qassem Soleimani was a popular figure of national resilience in the face of four decades of US pressure.

For the US and Israel, he was a shadowy figure in command of Iran's proxy forces, responsible for fighters in Syria backing President Bashar Assad and for the deaths of American troops in Iraq.

Solemani survived the horror of Iran's long war in the 1980s with Iraq to take control of the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, responsible for the Islamic Republic's campaigns abroad.

Relatively unknown in Iran until the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Soleimani's popularity and mystique grew after American officials called for his killing.

A decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran's most recognizable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but growing as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership.

"The warfront is mankind's lost paradise," Soleimani said in a 2009 interview.

"One type of paradise that is portrayed for mankind is streams, beautiful nymphs and greeneries. But there is another kind of paradise...The warfront was the lost paradise of the human beings, indeed."