US military strike kills three in second alleged drug boat attack this week | US military

The US military attacked an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, killing three people in its second attack this week.

“Intelligence confirmed that the ship transited known drug smuggling routes in the Eastern Pacific and was involved in drug smuggling operations,” said U.S. Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. said on Twitter/X.

No U.S. military forces were harmed, according to Southern Command, now led by General Francis Donovan.

Friday’s strike brings to at least 148 the total number of people killed in US attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling since September. Another US military strike earlier this week killed 11 people, making it one of the deadliest attacks this year.

A 16-second video released by Southern Command on Friday shows a single attack on the boat, which then bursts into flames.

The strike is part of the Trump administration’s plan to deploy U.S. forces in the region to allegedly capture drug traffickers.

How legal these strikes are has become a growing concern for lawmakers and legal experts; some allege that the Pentagon has carried out extrajudicial killings and “abuses of power with life-or-death consequences.”

“Under both U.S. and international law, it is clearly illegal to use the military to kill civilians merely suspected of committing crimes,” a post published in December states. expression Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Christopher Anders, director of the ACLU Division of Democracy and Technology. “Civilians, including those suspected of drug trafficking, are not lawful targets. Just because the Trump administration says these attacks are strictly legal does not mean it is true.”

Donovan took over as head of U.S. Southern Command after Admiral Alvin Holsey’s sudden retirement over disagreements over strike policy.