WASHINGTON: The U.S. military has carried out another lethal strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Saturday.
Hegseth in a social media posting said the vessel was operated by a U.S.-designated terrorist organization but did not name which group was targeted. He said three people were killed in the strike.
It's at least the 15th such strike carried out by the U.S. military in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific since early September.
“This vessel—like EVERY OTHER—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said in a posting on X.
The U.S. military has now killed at least 64 people in the strikes.
Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. He has asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The strikes come as the Trump administration has deployed an unusually large force of warships in the region.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has decried the military operations, as well as the U.S. military buildup, as a thinly veiled effort by the U.S. administration aimed at ousting him from power.
The Trump administration has yet to show evidence to support its claims about the boats that have been attacked, their connection to drug cartels, or even the identity of the people killed in the strikes.