The US military on Thursday attacked a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean that it accused of smuggling drugs, killing three people in the latest strike under the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America.
The attack takes the number of people killed in US military boat strikes to at least 211 since the administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September. President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has defended the strikes as a necessary step to curb the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses.
US Southern Command, as in most of its statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was carrying drugs. A video posted on X showed a boat speeding through the water before it was struck and burst into flames.
The administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists”. Critics have questioned both the legality of the boat strikes and how effective they are, partly because the fentanyl linked to many fatal overdoses is usually trafficked into the US over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.
On Thursday, senators demanded that the Pentagon release “unedited video” of the strikes. The attacks have come under intense scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars. The US military’s first strike in early September drew particular concern. In that attack, two men initially survived a strike that killed nine others and were clinging to the wreckage when the vessel was struck again, killing them.
The White House confirmed the follow-up strike, saying it was carried out “in self-defence” to ensure the boat was destroyed and was in line with the laws of armed conflict. Some legal scholars, however, said a second strike that killed survivors would have been illegal under any circumstance, armed conflict or not.
The Pentagon’s watchdog said in May that it plans to examine whether the US military followed an established targeting framework while carrying out the strikes. The inspector general’s office said the review is focused on the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes. The latest attack has added to a campaign that has killed at least 211 people and is facing continued questions over evidence, legality and targeting procedures.
With PTI Inputs
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