In a set back to the US, a UN report has held that the killing of Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani in an American airstrike earlier this year was unlawful. It also noted that the targeted killing was operated in the absence of any actual imminent threat to life.
Presenting the report to the UN Human Rights Council Thursday on the use of force under drones technology, Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said the US action constituted an arbitrary killing, reports Xinhua news agency.
“In light of the evidence that the US has provided to date, the targeting of General Soleimani, and the deaths of those accompanying him, constitute an arbitrary killing,” Callamard said in her report.
According to the report, the strike near the Baghdad airport on January 3 was in violation of the UN Charter with insufficient evidence provided of an ongoing or imminent attack.
No evidence has been provided that General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, specifically was planning an imminent attack against US interests, particularly in Iraq, for which immediate action was necessary and would have been justified, the report said.
Also no evidence has been provided that a drone strike in a third country was necessary or that the harm caused to that country was proportionate to the harm allegedly averted, the report added.
Besides Soleimani, the US airstrike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces.
On June 29th, Iran had issued an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump and 35 others over the Baghdad killings. The country also sought help from Interpol in this regard.
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