Since the Jan. 3 drone strike that killed Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s most important general, the Trump administration has offered shifting rationales for the attack. Here are some of the administration’s evolving justifications.

Jan. 3

The “decision to eliminate Soleimani” was “in response to imminent threats to American lives.”

— Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on Twitter

General Suleimani, the head of Iran’s elite security and intelligence forces, was deemed responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops in Iraq. Neither President George W. Bush nor President Barack Obama ordered him killed, judging that such a move could lead to war in Iran.

Later in the morning, appearing on CNN, Mr. Pompeo elaborated on the administration’s justification for the strike, saying that General Suleimani “was actively plotting in the region to take actions, a big action as he described it, that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk.”