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An influential Iranian general was quoted Thursday as saying that ISIS militants were “nearing the end of their lives,” as the jihadi group seized a town in western Iraq and attacked a nearby air base where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi forces, The Daily Star reported. 

Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the once rarely seen commander of the powerful Quds Force, has become the public face of Iran’s support for the Iraqi and Syrian governments against jihadis.

He has frequently been pictured on social media in Iraq with pro-government forces, including Kurdish fighters and Shiite militia units in battle areas.

“Considering the heavy defeats suffered by ISIS and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, we are certain these groups are nearing the end of their lives,” Soleimani was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

His extremely rare published remarks came in a speech made Wednesday in his home province Kerman to mark the 36th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Soleimani also said Tehran’s regional influence was growing.

“Today we see signs of the Islamic Revolution being exported throughout the region, from Bahrain to Iraq and from Syria to Yemen and North Africa,” he said.

“The arrogants and the Zionists have admitted, more than before, to their own weakness and to the Islamic Republic’s power, following their successive defeats,” he said.