Iranian ‘traitor’ general REAPPEARS looking hunched and frail after ‘suffering heart attack during brutal interrogation’

IRAN’S top general has mysteriously reappeared in public after suffering an alleged heart attack during an interrogation by his own country.

Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, 67, was seen looking hunched over, frail and nervy for the first time in weeks after he vanished amid sensational claims accusing him of being an Israeli spy.

His appearance on Iranian TV on Monday comes after he was reportedly forced to endure a brutal grilling by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Unconfirmed reports say the IRGC believed Qaani may have been responsible for Israel’s terror cull which saw a huge number of men eliminated in IDF strikes on Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was among those killed in Israel’s September 27 strike on a bunker with rumours of espionage quickly beginning to swirl.

Qaani disappeared shortly after a second deadly strike on October 4 – sparking claims that he was the traitor behind the incredible cull of Hezbollah’s top brass.

For weeks Qaani wasn’t seen or heard from – even by his family – as several sources started to claim he had been taken to a secret location for an interrogation.

He was later transferred to a hospital as reports suggested he may have suffered a heart attack while under lockdown by armed guards.

Qaani leads Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force and has since been confirmed to be “alive and in good health” by the regime.

The powerful military official has now been seen for the first time since his mysterious disappearance.

He appeared on state TV at a memorial service in Karbala, Iraq, for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps General Abbas Nilforoushan.

Nilforoushan was taken out alongside Nasrallah back in September’s bunker buster attack.

Footage of a frail looking Qaani shows him sat with other officials at the service in a black jacket with his grey hair and beard.

The general watches on with a tired stare as he sits with a hunched back and his eyes fixed on his lap for a short time.

He also appears very fidgety in the video with him moving around in his seat and his head nodding back and forth.

Qaani touches his face on several occasions in the short clip – once to stroke his facial hair and another time to wipe his eyes with a tissue.

The feared Iranian became head of the Quds Force – the IRGC’s overseas unit – after the US killing of its previous leader, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020.

But ever since Israel succeeded in wiping out dozens of enemy commanders across the region with intelligence led assassinations many feared they had a man on the inside.

The October 4, blitz targeted a meeting of Hezbollah’s Shura Council in Beirut which include heir apparent Hashem Safieddine.

Safieddine was set to be the next in line for the top role in the terror organisation after Nasrallah was killed a week earlier.

Qanni was due to attend the council meeting after being invited by Safieddine and at first was thought to have been killed or wounded.

It later emerged that he pulled out of the meeting shortly before Israel struck again.

A Hezbollah source told Middle East Eye: “Israel targeted the venue of this meeting with a raid that was bigger and harsher than the raid that targeted Nasrallah.

“Safieddine’s head was what was wanted, and no one else.

“Qaani was invited to this meeting and under the current circumstances he should have been present.”

Due to the nature of the pinpoint Israeli strikes the IRGC launched an investigation into espionage from one its own.

The commander of an armed faction close to Iran said: “The Iranians have serious suspicions that the Israelis have infiltrated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Especially those working in the Lebanese arena, so everyone is currently under investigation.

“Nothing is certain at the moment. The investigations are still ongoing and all possibilities are open.”

Iran’s probe into Nasrallah’s death also focused on a potential mole inside the terror regime.

Nasrallah was killed by six enormous bunker-buster bombs as soon as he set foot in a meeting to join Qaani’s comrades.

Quds force commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan died alongside the terror chief and was thought to have set up the secret meeting with Nasrallah.

Nilforoushan had only just taken over from Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in another Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syrai in April.

Sources said Nasrallah had been outside Beirut’s southern suburbs the night before his killing, but returned to the area to meet with Nilforoushan in a secret operations room.

Nilforoushan, who had flown from Beirut from Tehran earlier, was taken directly from the plane to the bunker beneath in the Haret Hreik suburb.

A second source said: “The breach was 100 percent Iranian and there is no question about this part.”

It comes as fears are growing that Hezbollah may have found a way to beat Israel’s Iron Dome after a fatal drone attack on Sunday.

Hezbollah said it had targeted a base belonging to the IDF’s Golani Brigade with a “swarm of drones” and killed four.

It was the deadliest strike by the terror group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Tel Aviv has a world-class air defence system which has meant strikes to Israel have, for the most part, been inconsequential – until now.

Israeli investigators are trying to wrap their head around why the Iron Dome didn’t pick up the killer drone – as well as why air raid sirens failed to alert the Golani Brigade.