Legality of Khamenei's Killing Is a Murky Area

The US-Israeli assault on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the very first day of strikes. In a New York Times analysis, Charlie Savage points out that it "is extraordinarily rare for a country to deliberately and openly kill the leader of another sovereign nation—even during legally uncontested wars." Rare, for sure. In a CNN analysis, Zachary B. Wolf suggests it's the "first time in modern history" that the US has done so. But is it legal? The answer to that turns out to be murky.

• Civilian leader: Savage runs through several of the legal issues at play. For example, Khamenei was head of Iran's armed forces, which would seem to make him a legit war target. But he was also a civilian, not a general, which complicates things. He was also killed in the first strike, raising the question of whether he was a "lawful military target" at the time.

• Who killed him? Another factor is that it appears an Israeli strike killed Khamenei, but that would not matter under the international doctrine of state responsibility. The US reportedly fed Israel information on his whereabouts and thus would be equally responsible for his death under the doctrine.
• Assassination ban: The US has a law on the books stating explicitly that "No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination." But Wolf notes that US presidents have gotten leeway since the 9/11 attacks to kill terrorist leaders, and Trump has called Iran the No. 1 sponsor of terrorism in the world.
• Self-defense: International law allows the use of force as a matter of self-defense against an "imminent" armed attack. Both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have cited "imminent" threats posed by Iran to the US, but Savage finds that both might be stretching the definition of the word.
• More personal self-defense: Trump made the matter more personal in an interview with ABC News. "I got him before he got me," Trump said of Khamenei, referencing intelligence reports that Iran had attempted to assassinate him. "They tried twice. Well, I got him first."