BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s judiciary says it has issued an arrest warrant for outgoing President Donald Trump in connection with the killing of an Iranian general and a powerful Iraqi militia leader last year.
The warrant for a premeditated murder charge was issued by a judge in Baghdad’s investigative court, which was tasked with probing the Washington-directed drone strike that killed Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the court’s media office said.
The two were killed outside the capital’s airport last January.
Al-Muhandis was the deputy leader of the state-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group composed of an array of militias, including Iran-backed groups, formed to fight the Islamic State group.
As for Soleimani, he was the leader of the expeditionary Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Though the warrant is largely symbolic and is unlikely to be carried out, The Associated Press reports the charge of premeditated murder carries the death penalty on conviction.
The Iraqi court says the killings of the two men are still being investigated.
