Qasem Soleimani - The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Quds Garrison

Qasem Soleimani was at the front almost from the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War. There are two different theories as to how he sort of got his career started, says CNN's John Sutter. The most trustworthy Western account comes from a 2013 New Yorker article by Dexter Filkins. It admits that he was like kind of just working out at the gym when all that was going on.