There are no pictures of him in the Iranian media. The United States has published a blurry image of him. None of Iran’s many media outlets have ever had an interview with or a comment from him. He is nowhere to be seen and nobody ever talks about him. $15 Million Man
As far as Iranian media are concerned, he does not exist. Avid Iran watchers who scan every picture of Supreme Leader Ali Khameneni and his military commanders have never seen him in any picture. Yet, he is the only IRGC commander the United States has put a price tag on his head: $15 million for any information about him and the network he runs in Yemen. He is Brigadier General Abdolreza Shahlai (Shahlaei), but it could be a fake name for a real man.
In January, on the same night that the IRGC downed a Ukrainian airliner just outside Tehran, Reuters had another story that was lost in the news traffic in the eventful night. The report said that on January 3, when a U.S. drone killed Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, another U.S. military unit was tasked with killing a second senior Qods Force Commander, Abdolreza Shahlai, but he escaped unscathed. Since then, The Pentagon, the IRGC and the Iranian media have remained silent about the report.
Nevertheless, U.S. officials believe Shahlai is one the most active Qods Force commanders in the Middle East who has been planning, funding and executing operations to kill U.S. forces in the region from Afghanistan to Iraq, and from Syria to Yemen.
On January 20, 2007 he was in Karbala where five American military men were killed, and three others wounded in an ambush. On that day, at least 24 U.S. soldiers were killed within 24 hours in various parts of Iraq. Some were shot by Iraqi militia supported by Iran.
U.S. sources say Shahlai is the deputy commander of Qods Force who controls many organizations believed to be behind targeting American forces worldwide. He has planned and executed the murder of many coalition soldiers in Iraq and provided weapons and ammunition to radical Shiite groups. The United States designated him as a terrorist in 2008.
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