New Delhi: On a day when the US Capitol witnessed massive riot post election, an arrest warrant was on Thursday issued against outgoing President Donald Trump in connection with the killing of an Iranian general and a powerful Iraqi militia leader last year, Iraq’s judiciary said.
According to updates, the warrant was issued by a judge in Baghdad’s investigative court which was probing the Washington-directed drone strike that killed Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The two leaders were killed outside the capital’s airport last January.
The arrest warrant was issued against Trump for a charge of premeditated murder, which carries the death penalty on conviction. The decision to issue the warrant “was made after the judge recorded the statements of the claimants from the family of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,” according to a statement from the Supreme Judicial Council.
While Soleimani headed the expeditionary Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Al-Muhandis was the deputy leader of the state-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces.
Last year, the killings of the two leaders sparked a diplomatic crisis and strained US-Iraq bilateral relations, drawing the anger of Shiite political lawmakers who passed a resolution to pressure the government to oust foreign troops from the country.