A United Nations expert investigating summary executions said Thursday that the United States’ targeted killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani of Iran was unlawful and risked eroding international laws that govern the conduct of hostilities.
Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur investigating extrajudicial and summary executions, said that the U.S. drone strike that killed Soleimani as he arrived in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in January could only be justified in international law as a response to an imminent threat. The U.S. had provided no evidence to support that position, she said.