Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s powerful Quds Force [A special forces unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for extraterritorial operations], derided US soldiers as incontinent cowards in a speech to soliders during an offensive to retake a strategic eastern town from the Islamic State.He is widely credited with delivering the strategy that turned the tide of the Syrian Civil War and saved President Bashar al-Assad, he prevented a wide-scale collapse of Iraq when he commanded the lift of the Siege of Amirli and he was the driving force behind Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War.