US sanctions for war crimes investigators

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slapped sanctions on the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court - a move that The Hague-based tribunal called a "serious" attack against the rule of law.

Economic sanctions were imposed on Fatou Bensouda and another senior ICC official, Phakiso Mochochoko, after earlier visa bans on Bensouda and others failed to head off the court's war crimes probe into US military personnel in Afghanistan.

"Today we take the next step because the ICC continues to target Americans, sadly," Pompeo said.

The ICC quickly fired back, calling the sanctions "serious attacks against the court, the Rome Statute system of international criminal justice, and the rule of law."

The sanctions freeze the US assets of the two officials and bar any US individuals from doing business with them.

President Donald Trump had authorized sanctions on the ICC on June 11 over its investigation of US troops.

Despite the new sanctions, the ICC appeared to give no ground on the issue, saying it "continues to stand firmly by its personnel and its mission of fighting impunity for the world's most serious crimes."

And the head of the ICC's Assembly of States Parties, Kwon O Gon, said the oversight body would meet to discuss how to support the tribunal in the face of the US measures.

The US measures "only serve to weaken our common endeavor to fight impunity for mass atrocities," Kwon said.

The United States - like Russia, China, Israel, Syria and a number of other countries - is not a member of the ICC, and its opposition to the court is long-standing.