At least two men were killed on Wednesday after the US military struck a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean that authorities alleged was involved in drug-smuggling operations.
The US Southern Command shared footage on X showing a speedboat racing across the water before erupting into flames following the strike. The US military said the alleged drug traffickers were targeted along a maritime route known for smuggling operations. However, it provided no evidence that the vessel was carrying drugs.
US President Donald Trump has defended the strikes as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, saying they are claiming American lives. He has also said the US is in an "armed conflict" with Latin American cartels.
However, the campaign has drawn criticism over its legality and effectiveness. Fentanyl, which is responsible for many fatal overdoses in the US, is generally trafficked overland from Mexico, where it is produced using chemicals imported from China and India.
The strikes have also come under scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars.
On September 2, the first such US military strike killed nine people. The vessel was struck a second time after two men were seen clinging to it, killing them. According to The Washington Post, US secretary of war Pete Hegseth had instructed US forces before the mission to kill the passengers, sink the boat and destroy the drugs. The White House maintained that the operation was conducted in "self-defence" and in accordance with the laws of armed conflict.
The Pentagon's watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, is planning to examine whether the military followed an established targeting framework during the strikes. The office said its review would focus on the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle governing mission planning and force execution, and not on the legality of the strikes themselves.
The latest strike has raised the death toll from such operations to 207 since early September, when the United States began targeting what it describes as "narco-terrorists", AP reported.
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