The US drone strike that killed Iran’s most powerful general during an official visit to Baghdad was illegal under international law, according to the United Nations most senior investigator into extrajudicial killings.
Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur, said that Washington had failed to provide sufficient evidence that there was an imminent threat to its interests to justify the strike on Qasem Soleimani’s convoy as it left Baghdad airport on January 3.
Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, was the mastermind of Iran’s regional network of proxy armies across the Middle East.
Washington accused Soleimani of organising attacks by militias on US forces in the region.
“Major General Soleimani was in charge of Iran military strategy, and actions, in Syria and Iraq,” Ms Callamard wrote. “But absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the US was unlawful.”
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She noted that the strike was the first known occasion on which a nation had invoked self-defence as a justification for an attack against a state actor in a third country. The US has previously invoked self-defence when targeting al-Qaeda and Isis members in other countries.
Nine other people were killed in the drone strike which fanned fears of conflict between the US and Iran. Iran threatened to take its revenge with attacks on US troops and interests in the region.
It retaliated with a rocket attack on an Iraqi airbase where US forces were stationed and hours later, Revolutionary Guard forces mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner taking off from Tehran, prompting protests and blunting Iran’s response.
Last month Iran issued an arrest warrant for President Trump and 35 other US officials over General Soleimani’s killing, calling on Interpol for assistance.
Ms Callamard’s assessment came in a report calling for accountability for targeted killings carried out by armed drones deployed by any country.
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China has stepped up its production of armed drones which it is selling to foreign powers across the Gulf, Europe and Asia.
“The world is at a critical time, and possible tipping point, when it comes to the use of drones,” she said. “The security council is missing in action; the international community, willingly or not, stands largely silent.”
Ms Callamard will present her findings to the UN human rights council in Geneva on Thursday. The US is no longer a member, having left two years ago.
