As a civilian, Soleimani initially worked in construction before joining the IRGC during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. He assembled and led a company of soldiers when the Iran–Iraq War began in September 1980, eventually rising through the ranks to become the commander of the 41st Tharallah Division in his 20s. He was later involved in extraterritorial operations, and in the late 1990s became commander of the IRGC Quds Force. Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, Iranian diplomats under his direction cooperated with U.S. forces in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. Soleimani also provided extensive assistance to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In 2012, following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, Soleimani helped bolster the Government of Syria and its president, Bashar al-Assad, a key Iranian ally. He ran Iran's operations in the Syrian Civil War and helped plan and organize the Russian military intervention in Syria. Soleimani coordinated Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militia forces in Iraq, and assisted them during the militant expansion of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014.