3 killed in latest U.S. strike on suspected drug boat in eastern Pacific, Pentagon says
The US military launched a new strike on Tuesday against a ship suspected of transporting drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men.
In a social media post, the U.S. Southern Command said its commander, Gen. Francis L. Donovan, ordered a “lethal kinetic strike” on a boat that it said was operated by “designated terrorist organizations” and “engaged in narcotics trafficking operations,” but without providing evidence. It also included unclassified video of the strike.
The attack occurred a day after U.S. forces struck a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing two people.
The Trump administration’s campaign to blow up suspected drug-trafficking ships in Latin American waters has continued since early September and has killed at least 190 people in total, according to the Pentagon.
Despite the war in Iran, the strikes have increased again in recent weeks, demonstrating that the administration’s aggressive steps to end what it calls “narcoterrorism” in the Western Hemisphere are not letting up. The military has provided no evidence that any of the ships were carrying drugs.
The attacks began as the United States was building its largest military presence in the region in generations and took place months before the January raid. who captured Nicolas Maduro, then Venezuelan president. He was brought to New York to face drug charges and pleaded not guilty.
In Tuesday’s attack, the U.S. Southern Command once again said it targeted suspected drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. He posted a video on X showing a boat sailing on the water before a huge explosion left the ship in flames.
President Trump said the United States was in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and the fatal overdoses that are costing American lives. But his administration has provided little evidence to support its claims that he killed “narcoterrorists.”
Critics, meanwhile, have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes.
