TEHRAN, July 3 -- The general Israel spent the better part of five months trying to kill sat publicly alongside Ali Khamenei's coffin on Thursday night.

Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had not been seen publicly since February 8, three weeks before the joint US-Israeli strikes that opened the war and killed his predecessor. On Thursday, photographs showed him attending a funeral planning session chaired by Iran's president and seated alongside the casket at the evening vigil service inside the Supreme Leader's compound. His emergence is the clearest public confirmation yet of who survived the campaign to decapitate Iran's military leadership.

His return did not settle the broader question ha...