Moment US launches deadly attack on 3 ‘drug boats’ as 11 people killed | World | News
It was stated that the US army attacked three drug ships on Monday, February 16, and 11 people died in the operation. A message released by the US Southern Command on Tuesday claimed that 11 “male narco-terrorists” had been killed. U.S. military officials said four people died on one ship in the Eastern Pacific, four on a second ship also in the Eastern Pacific and three on a third ship in the Caribbean.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting known drug smuggling routes and were involved in drug smuggling operations,” U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post. The operation was conducted by Joint Task Force Southern Lance under commanding general Francis L. Donovan.
In the message It was not immediately apparent that the video provided information corroborating this claim.
The military added that no US soldiers were injured in the operation late Monday night.
A total of 42 attacks have been carried out by the Trump administration on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since September, when the US President called on his country’s military to attack “narco-terrorists” on small vessels.
Last week, U.S. Southern Command carried out two more attacks on boats it claimed were carrying suspected drug smugglers.
But the pace of attacks appears to have slowed since early January, when US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an operation launched in Caracas.
The Trump administration accused Mr. Maduro of collaborating with drug trafficking networks, an allegation he denied, and Maduro was charged in a Manhattan court with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. He stated that he did not accept the accusations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the goal of the overall operation against alleged drug boats was to “remove narco-terrorists from our hemisphere” and protect the United States from “drugs that are killing our people.”
While some legal experts say strikes in international waters may be illegal, the Trump administration has argued they are legal. Donald Trump Stating that the United States was in an “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America, he justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs.
