Pentagon kills 6 in strike on suspected drug trafficking vessel at sea

US forces launched a deadly attack on an alleged drug-smuggling ship in the Eastern Pacific, killing six people on board, the Pentagon announced Sunday.

U.S. Southern Command said it carried out “a lethal kinetic attack on a ship operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization” at the direction of Southern Command’s new leader, Marine Corps Gen. Francis L. Donovan, who took over in January.

“Intelligence confirmed that the ship was transiting through known drug smuggling routes in the Eastern Pacific and was involved in drug smuggling operations,” Southern Command said in a press release. he said.

According to Southern Command, all six people on board were killed but no U.S. forces were killed in the attack on the ship.

According to The New York Times, the latest attack brings to at least 156 the number of deaths in the Trump administration’s attacks on ships carrying people it accuses of drug smuggling.

This was the 45th attack since the United States began targeting boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in early September, the newspaper reported, and comes at a time when the pace of attacks has increased recently.

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All six people on board were killed, but no US forces were killed in the attack on the ship. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

Sunday’s attack was one of the deadliest boat attacks carried out by the military in recent weeks.

“Going on the offensive with Operation Southern Lance restored deterrence against narco-terrorist cartels that profit from poisoning Americans,” Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said last week. he said. “Last month, we went several weeks without targeting a single boat. Why? Because we couldn’t find many boats to sink, and that’s the whole point, to create a deterrent against narco-terrorists who can traffic almost unfettered.”

The Pentagon has refused since last fall to release the identities of those killed in the attacks or provide evidence that drugs were on the ship.

The Pentagon has refused to disclose the identities of those killed in the attacks or provide evidence that drugs were on the ship. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The administration has been under scrutiny over strikes in recent months; Among them are Sen. Sen., R-Ky., who has expressed concern about the killing of people without due process and the possibility of innocent people being killed. Rand Paul was also there.

“I look at my colleagues who say they are pro-life and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give much information about these people on the boats,” Paul said in January. “Scary people on the boats? I don’t know. Probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”

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The senator had previously cited Coast Guard statistics showing that a significant percentage of boats embarked on suspicion of drug smuggling are innocent.

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