Assassination of Qasem Soleimani: Extrajudicial Killing Without Congressional Authorization

Overview

On January 3, 2020, U.S. forces conducted a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport killing Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force and one of the most powerful figures in the Iranian state. The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia group. Seven other people were killed.

The killing was ordered by President Trump, who cited an alleged imminent threat of attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel. No specific intelligence supporting this characterization was provided to Congress or the public, and subsequent reporting by multiple outlets — including The New York Times and The Washington Post — indicated that the intelligence was disputed and that the Trump administration had been seeking an opportunity to strike Soleimani for weeks.

Legal Controversy

The killing of a senior official of a recognized state, on the territory of a third country, without that country's consent, raises serious questions under the UN Charter's prohibition on the use of force (Article 2(4)), which permits military force only in response to an actual or genuinely imminent armed attack (Article 51).

The administration's legal justification — submitted to Congress in a classified War Powers notification — was widely criticized as inadequate. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), a supporter of Trump and a constitutional lawyer, described the classified congressional briefing as "probably the worst briefing I've seen, at least on a military issue" and called it "insulting."

UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard, in a July 2020 report, concluded that the available evidence did not establish that the strike was a lawful exercise of self-defense under international law. She found that the U.S. had not demonstrated that Soleimani was planning an imminent attack, which would be required to justify preemptive action.

Retaliation and Escalation

Iran's retaliatory ballistic missile strike on January 8, 2020, struck U.S. bases in Iraq. Trump initially claimed there were no casualties. The Department of Defense subsequently reported that 110 U.S. service members had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries from the blast — injuries the Pentagon first dismissed as "headaches."

The strike and its aftermath brought the United States and Iran to the closest point of direct military conflict since the 1979 revolution, with both countries briefly mobilizing additional forces.

Congressional Response

Both houses of Congress passed War Powers resolutions directing Trump to seek Congressional approval before further military action against Iran. Trump vetoed both resolutions. The administration insisted that the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (passed after 9/11) and the 2002 AUMF (authorizing the Iraq War) provided legal authority for the Soleimani strike — a legal argument rejected by most constitutional scholars as a significant overreach.