Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rebutted a “spurious” United Nations report that said the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani by the United States went against international law.
Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, submitted a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council calling the January drone strike in Iraq that killed Soleimani “unlawful,” according to Fox News. The U.S. has said that the strike was carried out to stop an “imminent attack” against its interests.
“No evidence has been provided that Gen. Soleimani specifically was planning an imminent attack against U.S. interests, particularly in Iraq, for which immediate action was necessary and would have been justified,” Callamard said.
Pompeo defended the strike, which came just days after Iran-backed militias attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Along with Soleimani, Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, the head of the Iranian-supported Popular Mobilization Forces, was also killed.
“Ms. Callamard’s conclusions are spurious,” Pompeo said in a Thursday statement. “The strike that killed Gen. Soleimani was in response to an escalating series of armed attacks in preceding months by the Islamic Republic of Iran and militias it supports on U.S. forces and interests in the Middle East region.”
The U.S. left the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018, citing its anti-Israel bias. The body was formed in 2006 but has been met with criticism, given that some of its member countries face serious accusations of human rights abuses.
Callamard also accused the U.S. of “violating the territorial integrity of Iraq” during the strike.
“Major General Soleimani was in charge of Iran military strategy, and actions, in Syria and Iraq,” the report said. “But absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the U.S. was unlawful.”
Pompeo said it was justified and that Soleimani, who led the Quds Force, was planning further attacks in the region. The Quds Force is an elite special operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that often operates in other countries.
“It was conducted to deter Iran from launching or supporting further attacks against the United States or U.S. interests and to degrade the capabilities of the Quds Force,” Pompeo said, adding that the U.S. has been “transparent” with the world about the attack.
“As the president said on Jan. 2, ‘We will always protect our diplomats, service members, and all Americans,’” he added.
Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, has said that Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of more than 600 U.S. troops in Iraq. Hundreds of soldiers died since 2003 from explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs, that were supplied to Shiite militia groups since 2003.
Iran responded to the strike against Soleimani by lobbing dozens of missiles at two bases in Iraq, causing brain injuries for dozens of soldiers.
