Three killed in US military strike on alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean | US news
The US military has carried out another deadly attack on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
Hegseth said Saturday that the ship was operated by a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, but did not specify which group was targeted. He said three people were killed in the strike.
This is at least the 15th strike of this type carried out by the American army in the Caribbean or the eastern Pacific since the beginning of September.
In a message published on
The US military has now killed at least 64 people in these strikes.
Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. He asserted that the United States was engaged in an “armed conflict” against drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority that the Bush administration used when it declared war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
U.S. lawmakers have been repeatedly rebuffed by the White House in their demand that the administration release more information about the legal justification for the strikes as well as more details about the cartels that were targeted and the individuals killed.
Hegseth said in his message that “narcoterrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home” and that the Department of Defense “will treat them EXACTLY the same way we treated Al-Qaeda.”
Senate Democrats renewed their request for more information about the strikes in a letter Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Hegseth.
“We also ask that you provide any legal opinions related to these strikes and a list of groups or other entities that the President has determined to be targetable,” the senators wrote.
Signatories to the letter included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as well as Senators Jack Reed, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Warner, Chris Coons, Patty Murray and Brian Schatz.
The letter said that until now, the administration “has selectively shared sometimes contradictory information” with some members, “while excluding others.”
Earlier Friday, the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee released two letters sent to Hegseth, written in late September and early October, requesting the department’s legal justification for the strikes and the list of drug cartels that the Trump administration designated as terrorist organizations in its justification for the use of military force.
