The US military said four people were killed on Thursday in a strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific, the latest action in a counter-narcotics campaign that has drawn intensifying scrutiny.
According to a post by US Southern Command on X, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted the strike on the orders of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth after intelligence indicated the boat, operated by a “designated terrorist organization,” was carrying illicit narcotics along a known trafficking route. The post said “four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” releasing a short video that showed the craft speeding across the water before being hit by an explosion.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth in a post on X reacted to the strike. He posted, "Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat," while responding to an request for downing another alleged narco-boat.
The development came hours after lawmakers viewed classified footage of a separate incident from early September, in which US forces struck a vessel already destroyed in an earlier engagement, killing two survivors.
Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the house intelligence committee, said the footage showed “the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors - bad guys, bad guys - but attacking shipwrecked sailors,” calling it “one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service.” He added: “You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States,” reported AFP.
Republican Representative Don Bacon also raised concerns, saying on CNN that “these two people were trying to survive and our... rules of war would not allow us to kill survivors,” noting that such action requires an “imminent threat” which he said was absent. But Senator Tom Cotton defended the operation, insisting the sequence of strikes on September 2 was lawful. “The first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on September 2 were entirely lawful and needful,” he said, arguing the footage showed two survivors “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”
Both the White House and Pentagon have sought to distance Hegseth from the decision to target survivors, saying operational responsibility rested with admiral Frank Bradley, who directly oversaw the mission. Lawmakers said Bradley told them Hegseth had not ordered that all crew be killed, though Bacon maintained the defence secretary remains ultimately accountable because “he's the secretary of defense.”
The Trump administration has framed the campaign as part of a broader push against “narco-terrorists,” deploying major naval assets to the Caribbean for counter-narcotics operations. The moves have heightened tensions in the region, with Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro accusing Washington of using drug enforcement as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas.
(With inputs from agency)
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