ICE arrest family of slain Iran warlord living in Los Angeles

They are facing removal from the US

Soleimani’s family members, 47-year-old Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, 25-year-old Sarinasadat Hosseiny, were arrested in Los Angeles by federal immigration agents.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that they have also had their permanent residence rescinded.

Rubio said that Ms Soleimani Afshar, the niece of Soleimani, was “an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the ‘Great Satan’”.

They are now in the custody of ICE and pending removal from the United States.

Soleimani was killed in an American air strike in Iraq in January 2020, on Trump’s orders.

He was considered by some analysts the right-hand man of the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and the second-most powerful person in Iran after Khamenei.

On Sunday, however, an official of the Iranian foreign ministry claimed that the women arrested were not related to Soleimani.

Narjes Soleimani, the late military commander’s daughter, said his family had never lived in ‌the US and that he had two nephews, not nieces.

“The individuals arrested in the US have no connection whatsoever to Martyr Soleimani and the claims made by the US State Department are false”, she said.

The US state department had earlier identified the pair as family members of the late general.