Tag
3 incidents
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
Trump pardoned four Blackwater guards whom US courts had convicted of killing Iraqi civilians, including a 9-year-old boy, in Baghdad in 2007. The UN human rights office said the pardons 'contribute to impunity'; a survivor who testified at trial said he was 'really shocked.'
Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
Soleimani was one of the most senior military commanders of a foreign government. His killing — outside declared combat zones, in the territory of a third country (Iraq) — raised significant questions under international law and the U.S. War Powers Resolution. Congressional leaders, including Senate majority leader McConnell, were not briefed in advance. Iran's ballistic missile response struck Al Asad Air Base and injured 110 U.S. service members; Trump initially told the public no one was hurt. The administration's justification for the strike — an 'imminent threat' — was not substantiated with specific intelligence that was shared with Congress.
Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation
A single US bomb aimed at two ISIS snipers brought down a west Mosul building full of families, killing at least 105 civilians by the Pentagon's count. The US says hidden ISIS explosives caused the collapse and that it did not know civilians were inside. Amnesty found the coalition failed to take adequate precautions in a city where residents had been told not to flee.