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1 1 (February 18, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govcagu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Resarh Service UPDATED: Recent U.S. Airstrikes: Legal Authorities and Questions Updated February 18, 2020 Update: The Trump Administration has reported to Congress a change in application of the existing legal and policy frameworks regarding the use of military force, which presented the following legal justification for the January airstrikes: Article It of the United States Constitution, empowers the President, as Commander in Chief to direct the use of military force to protect the Nation from an attack or threat of imminent attack and to protect important national interests. Article It thus authorized the President to use force against forces ofIran, a state responsiblefor conducting and directing attacks against United States forces in the region. In addition, under the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq (2002 AUMF), the President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to ... defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq. Although the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime was the initial focus of the statute, the United States has long relied upon the 2002 AUMF to authorize the use offorce for the purpose of establishing a stable, democratic Iraq and addressing terrorist threats emanating from Iraq. Such uses offorce need not address threats from the Iraqi Government apparatus only, but may address threats to the United States posed by militias, terrorist groups, or other armed groups in Iraq. (Footnotes omitted). The House Committee on Foreign Affairs posted this report on its website on February 14, 2020. The original Legal Sidebar from January 8, 2020 appears below. Recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria have raised legal questions concerning the scope of the President's power to use force against Iran and Iran-backed organizations. In late December, U.S. forces conducted airstrikes against five facilities in Iraq and Syria used by Kata'ib Hizbollah-an entity with ties to Iran designated by the Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization. According to a Department of Defense (DOD) statement, the strikes came in response to attacks on military bases in Iraq that host U.S. forces engaged in the campaign to defeat the Islamic State. Two days later, Kata'ib Hizbollah supporters and others marched to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, damaging property and setting fire to outer buildings. Then, on January 2, 2020, the U.S. military, at the direction of the President, killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, an Iraqi security official and Kata'ib Hizballah founder named as a specially Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10391 CRS LegM Sideba Prepaimed for Mernbei-s aid comrmtee! c. orlwes'

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