Did President Trump have legal authority to order the killing of a top Iranian general in Iraq? The short answer: Probably. But it depends on facts that aren't yet known.
A boy carries a portrait of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in the U.S. airstrike in Iraq, prior to the Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday Jan. 3, 2020. Iran has vowed "harsh retaliation" for the U.S. airstrike near Baghdad's airport that killed Tehran's top general and the architect of its interventions across the Middle East, as tensions soared in the wake of the targeted killing.
In its limited explanation so far, the Pentagon said Gen. Qassem Soleimani was “actively developing” plans to kill American diplomats and service members when he was killed in a U.S. drone strike Friday near the Baghdad airport shortly after arriving in the country. That justification would apply even if Soleimani hadn’t already launched an attack under the established doctrine of “anticipatory” self-defense, according to Jeff Addicot, a retired Army officer and expert in national security law at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio.
“Under international law, self-defense, to be lawful, will need to be invoked in situations where there is an imminent attack against the interest of the territory, in this case of the United States,” said Agnès Callamard, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions. “At this point in time, the United States has not thus far provided any information suggesting that there was an imminent attack against the American interest.
Democratic leaders of Congress have complained that they weren’t notified of the strike in advance. Chesney said the administration could likely argue that it has legal authority to protect the troops in the Middle East who were dispatched there under congressional authorizations passed in 2001 and 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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