US military says it killed two people in another boat strike in eastern Pacific | US news
The US military said Monday it killed two people in a strike on a ship in the eastern Pacific Ocean, saying the targets were involved in “narcotics trafficking operations.”
That announcement, like most of the military’s statements about the dozens of strikes it has carried out in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, provided no evidence to support its claims that the targets were involved in narcotics trafficking.
The U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post that “the vessel was transiting routes known for narcotics trafficking” and alleged the vessel was operated by “designated terrorist organizations.” The statement described the two people killed as “male narcoterrorists” and did not provide further details on their identities.
U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said it was “applying full systemic friction against the cartels” and said no U.S. military forces were injured in the operation. The post included a grainy video showing a ship exploding from above.
The deadly strike came a day after the military said it blew up two boats it said were carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific, with the explosions killing five people and leaving one survivor. The military said the U.S. Coast Guard activated a search and rescue system for the survivor. The military also shared footage of this explosion and provided no evidence to support its claims.
The military has killed at least 170 people in strikes on boats since the Trump administration began targeting ships in the region in early September, according to the Associated Press.
The U.S. government has faced scrutiny over the strikes, with critics saying it was illegal under U.S. and international law to kill civilians suspected of crimes.
In December, Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign over the boat strikes, which the senator called illegal and unauthorized.
In January, civil rights lawyers filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of the families of two men killed in an airstrike on a small boat in the Caribbean on October 14. The men were from a fishing village in Trinidad and were returning from Trinidad to Venezuela when they were killed.
The complaint says the “premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” saying the strike was “simply murder, ordered at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”
The administration argued the strikes were legal under the rules of war, saying the United States was engaged in an armed conflict with the traffickers, but legal experts rejected that justification.
