Name Qasem-Ali Zahirnejad | ||
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Allegiance Imperial State of Iran Islamic Republic of Iran Years of service 1951-1973 (Imperial Iranian Army)1979-1989 (Islamic Republic of Iran Army) Commands held Chief of Urmia DivisionChief of Islamic Republic of Iran ArmyChief of Iranian Armed Forces Died October 21, 1999, Tehran, Iran | ||
Qasem-Ali Zahir Nejad (1924 – 21 October 1999) was a major general in the Army of Iran after the 1979 revolution.
Zahirnejad began studies in the Military University (Imam Ali) in 1951. He retired from the army in 1973 as a lieutenant colonel. After the 1979 revolution he returned to the army at the beginning of the unrest in Kurdistan and in 1979 as commander of Division 64 of Urmia. In 1980 he was named as a brigadier general to command the whole country's Gendarmerie and Army and on 9 October 1981 was named President of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
During the Iran-Iraq war, his insistent implementation of classic combat commanders led to clashes with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, a unit which relies on the use of numerous small forces of infantry and armored equipment. He achieved the rank of major general on 6 November 1989. In 1999 he died of stroke.