State Department officials reportedly were not aware of imminent threats to U.S. embassies before Soleimani strike

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 13 January 2020

President Trump's claim that four U.S. embassies faced an imminent threat of attack in the lead up to the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani took another hit after CNN reported Monday that State Departments weren't made aware of any threats.

While the department reportedly sent a global warning to U.S. embassies before the strike occurred, anonymous State Department officials told CNN there were no warnings about specific dangers to any U.S. embassies. In cases where a threat is imminent, the officials said protocol would normally call for the department to issue explicit warnings to overseas diplomats, limit their movements, and even consider staff evacuations, none of which happened before Soleimani was killed in a U.S. airstrike earlier this month in Iraq. One official was reportedly "blindsided" by the administration justifying the strike with word of the embassy threats.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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