UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Agnes Callamard said the US drone strike on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani "was a violation of the UN Charter governing the use of force and an arbitrary killing," in Geneva on Thursday.

Presenting her report to Human Rights Council, Callamard said, "My report as an annex presenting a case study of the targeted killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani concluding that is was a violation of the UN Charter governing the use of force and an arbitrary killing."

"The international community must confront the very real prospect that a state may opt to strategically eliminate high ranking military officials outside the context of a non-war and seek to justify the killings on the grounds of necessity not imminent," she added.

Commenting on Callamard's findings, permanent representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran Esmaeil Baghaei said that "there remains no doubt as to the culpability of the US government as well as those personally criminal responsibility of those involved the US and the states that hosted US drones bear responsibility and must be held to account for this lawless behaviour and criminal act."

General Soleimani was the leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force. The US targeted Soleimani, at the Baghdad airport in Iraq on January 3, for allegedly masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on US forces in the Middle East.

Mandatory Credit: UNTV