News - Middle East: A senior Iraqi lawmaker says the country’s judiciary is likely to issue an arrest warrant against former prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi over his complicity in the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his associates.

Fazil Zarijawi, a member of the State of Law Coalition, told the Arabic service of Shafaq news agency that the 55-year-old Iraqi politician is currently residing in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone under the protection of the US embassy.

He added that the chances are high that an arrest warrant would be issued against Kadhimi and he would undergo interrogation over his involvement in “the heist of the century” – a brazen multibillion-dollar plundering of state coffers – and targeted killings of the two high-profile anti-terror commanders.

On November 27, a total of 78 Iraqi plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against former US president, Donald Trump, former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, former US ambassador to Baghdad Matthew H. Tueller, al-Kadhimi, and former director of the National Operations Center Dhia al-Musawi over the assignation of Lieutenant General Soleimani and Muhandis, registering their case at the Federal Court of Appeal in the capital Baghdad.

Among the complainants was Muhammad Hassan Jaafar, a brother of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was also killed in the US drone strike near Baghdad international airport more than two years ago.

Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their associates were assassinated in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.

The strike was authorized by then-US President Donald Trump despite his military advisors warning against the foolhardy move.

Two days after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill that required the government to end the presence of all US-led foreign military forces in the country.

Both Soleimani and Muhandis were highly revered across the Middle East for their key role in fighting and decimating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

On January 8, 2020, the IRGC targeted the US-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar with a wave of missile attacks in retaliation for the assassination of Lt. Gen. Soleimani.

According to the Pentagon, more than 100 American forces suffered “traumatic brain injuries” during the counterstrike on the base. The IRGC, however, says Washington uses the term to mask the number of Americans who perished during the retaliation.

Iran has described the missile attack on Ain al-Assad as a “first slap.”

Source: Press TV