Plaintiffs are demanding legal action against the former U.S. president and others, including Mike Pompeo, for the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military officer, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of an Iraqi militia.
Iran’s Qasem Soleimani, left, with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia commander, in 2017 in Tehran. They were both killed by the same U.S. targeted drone strike in 2020. (Fars News Agency, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
More than two years after the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, at least 78 Iraqis filed a lawsuit in an Iraqi court on Sunday against then U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials of his administration.
The plaintiffs demanded legal action against the accused, including Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, among others, in their petition filed at Baghdad’s federal court of appeal. The plaintiffs include Muhammad Hassan Jaafar al-Muhandis, the brother of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Though the new Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani had promised to take legal action against Trump once in power, it is not clear whether the plaintiffs have the backing of the government.
Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite al-Quds forces, part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and Muhandis, commander of the Iraqi militia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), were assassinated in a drone attack on Jan. 3, 2020, near the Baghdad airport.
Trump later claimed responsibility for the assassinations, accusing Soleimani of being a terrorist and being involved in plotting “sinister attacks” on Americans.
The U.S. had categorized the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019, part of the series of sanctions imposed on Iran following the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Jan. 3, 2020: President Donald Trump during a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, following the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. (White House, Shealah Craighead)
Both Soleimani and Muhandis were celebrated in Iran and Iraq for playing key roles in fighting against the Islamic State (IS) and reversing its advances. Prior to its defeat, ISIS had taken control over a large part of Iraq and Syria.
The assassinations invited a strong reaction from Iran and mass protests in both Iran and Iraq. Within a couple of days, the Iraqi parliament adopted a resolution asking the government to ensure that all foreign troops leave the country.
On Jan. 7, an Iraqi court issued an arrest warrant against Trump for murder under the Iraqi penal code.
On Jan. 8, Iran launched several rockets at Iraq’s Ain Al-Assad military base where a significant section of the U.S. soldiers in the country were stationed. While there were reportedly no deaths, over 100 U.S. soldiers were injured.
Iran also demanded an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from the region.
Following the assassinations, the U.S.-led international forces came under heavy attacks from local militias, forcing their gradual withdrawal or relocation.
This April, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price admitted that the intensity and frequency of attacks on foreign troops in Iraq increased following the U.S. assassination of Soleimani and Muhandis. He noted that between 2018 and 2020, attacks on U.S. forces increased by 400 percent.
Frequent attacks and rising popular protests in Iraq against the presence of foreign forces, as well as the Iraqi parliament’s resolution, forced the government led by Mustafa al-Kadhimi to negotiate with the U.S. government, which ultimately led to the withdrawal of most of the U.S. forces. The U.S. claims that those who remained in Iraq are not there for combative purposes but for training and support.
This article is from Peoples Dispatch.
I note that this short write-up concluded by stating that the remaining US troops in Iraq were not there in a combative role rather they are still there for training and support. This is interesting, the assassinated General Solemani was in Iraq exactly for such a training and support mission and perhaps a higher advisory role as well, yet he and his colleague were subjected to targetted assassinations ! What makes one a terrorist and what excuses the other from a terrorism label and its consequently justifiable targetings ? Idiotic secular Muslim and Third World leaders like Saddam, Ghaddafi and Noreiga, despite all having been on CIA payrolls, get executed sometimes even brutally yet their US executive counterparts, themselves no less bloody, not only escape temporal accountability for their thuggy actions under official cover but also often go totally scott-free in this world till their eulogized funerals !
I note that this short write-up concluded by stating that the remaining US troops in Iraq were not there in a combative role rather they are still there for training and support. This is interesting, the assassinated General Solemani was in Iraq exactly for such a training and support mission and perhaps a higher advisory role as well, yet he and his colleague were subjected to targetted assassinations ! What makes one a terrorist and what excuses the other from a terrorism label and its consequently justifiable targetings ? Idiotic secular Muslim and Third World leaders like Saddam, Ghaddafi and Noreiga, despite all having been on CIA payrolls, get executed sometimes even brutally yet their US executive counterparts, themselves no less bloody, not only escape temporal accountability for their thuggy actions under official cover but also often go totally scott-free in this world till their eulogized funerals !
People should know by now who is the largest and most militarily well equipped terrorist in the world: USA. The drone kill of these two men was in itself an act of a terrorist.
We can see that the usual US behaviour towards anyone designated an enemy ie punish, has backfired, and that despite the harm caused to Iran over all these years by the cruel illegal sanctions, Iran is now in a position with plenty of friends ( member of SCO, awaiting joining BRICS) and a buildup of military might to be a formidable foe.
It may be that “our values”, lying, stealing, assassinations, bullying,régime change…leave something to be desired.
Shame he can’t be extradited. (Or sent to Belmarsh prison)
rosemerry: Yes. It’s the way that neocons think and why all that they touch turns to mud. Unfortunately, “neoconism” is now the US government’s guiding ideology and, of course, it’s hard to move when you are standing hip-deep in mud.
Pompeo said ” we lie, we cheat, we steal”. He should have added we “kill” to that list.
Indeed!
Thank you.
They are even mass murders.