WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike that killed a top Iranian military commander last month in response to past attacks, the White House said in a memo released on Friday, despite previous administration assertions that it was due to an imminent threat.
As required by law, the administration sent Congress an unclassified justification for the strike on Jan. 2 that killed Qassem Soleimani at the airport in Baghdad. The strike, and Iran's retaliation, raised fears of wider war and frustrated some lawmakers who said Trump had given them shifting justifications for the attack.