The latest US strike on a drug boat has killed three people in the eastern Pacific, the Pentagon said
The US military attacked a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, killing three people, as the Trump administration led. month campaign against those suspected of trafficking in Latin America.
The latest attack brings to at least 211 the number of people killed on US military boats since the Trump administration began targeting what it calls narcoterrorists in early September.
Like many military statements about strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, the US Southern Command in a statement posted on social media said the boat “was traveling on known drug trafficking routes.” The military did not provide evidence that the ship was carrying drugs.
The military said the boat was being used by “Designated Terrorist Organizations.” It did not name a specific organization, but the Trump administration has designated several Latin American gangs and drug cartels as terrorist groups.
A video posted on X shows the boat running through the water before it was hit and burst into flames.
President Trump said the US is “in an armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and justified the attack as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and the drug overdoses that are killing Americans.
Critics have questioned the full legality of the boat strikes and their effectiveness, in part because the deadly drug fentanyl is often sold in the US from Mexico, where it is manufactured with chemicals from China and India. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has done it it was argued some of the boaters were innocent — a charge the Trump administration has denied — and set them up as an ineffective anti-trafficking tactic.
“Killing corporate employees is easy,” Petro said in an interview with CBS News last fall. “But if you want to be successful, you have to hold business leaders.”
The senators on Thursday demanded that the Pentagon release “unedited video” of the strikes. They have drawn intense scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars. US military first strike in early September he received some concern from some lawmakers and those who study military law.
The two men on the boat in that first strike survived the attack that killed 9 others, and were clinging to the wreckage when the ship was struck again, and died. The White House has confirmed the next strike, insisting it was carried out “defensively” to ensure the boat was destroyed and in accordance with the laws of war.
But some legal experts said the second strike to kill the survivors was illegal under any circumstances, armed conflict or not.
The Pentagon’s watchdog said in May it plans to look into whether the US military has followed established guidelines when conducting strikes. However, the analysis focused more on what is known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes, the inspector general’s office said.
