Iraq war was illegal, Dutch panel rules

Inquiry says conflict had no sound mandate in international law as it emerges UK denied key letter to seven-judge tribunal

• Afua Hirsch, legal affairs correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 January 2010

US Marines on the city limits of Kut, 100 miles south of Baghdad in April 2003 Photograph: Wally Santana/AP

The war in Iraq had “no basis in international law“, a Dutch inquiry found today, in the first ever independent legal assessment of the decision to invade.

In a series of damning findings, a seven-member panel in the Netherlands concluded that the war, which was supported by the Dutch government following intelligence from Britain and the US, had not been justified in law.

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Tags: a Dutch inquiry, Afua Hirsch, Chilcot inquiry, Dutch government, Philippe Sands QC, Tony Blair's letter, war in Iraq