Pentagon chief announces another US military strike on alleged drug boat in Caribbean | US military

The United States launched another military strike against a ship carrying illegal drugs in the Caribbean, killing six people on board, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said.

One social media post “According to our intelligence, the ship was known to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was passing through a known drug smuggling route and was carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said Friday morning.

He said that all 6 people on the ship lost their lives in the attack carried out in international waters and that it was “the first attack at night”.

He added that no US forces were harmed.

As is common in previous announcements of such attacks, Hegseth shared a short video showing a boat hit by military munitions at sea suddenly exploding.

Donald Trump announced what appeared to be the first attack on a boat on September 3 by posting a short video of the attack.

Since then, the Trump administration has announced more attacks without revealing many details about the targets other than the number of people killed and the allegations that the boats were carrying narcotics. The strikes sparked widespread condemnation, including from civil liberties groups and many South American countries.

On Tuesday, the Guardian reported that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provided much of the intelligence used to carry out the airstrikes. The agency’s central role means much of the evidence used to select targets will almost certainly remain secret, experts said.

The attacks took place both in the Caribbean and this week off the Pacific coast of South America.

On Friday morning, Hegseth claimed, without providing any evidence, that the target of the latest attack was “a ship operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) that trafficks narcotics in the Caribbean Sea.”

The administration described Tren de Aragua and other gangs as terrorist organizations. Legal experts argued that the designation of gangs and drug cartels as terrorist organizations does not give the administration additional authority to use lethal force.

White House officials also sought to justify the attacks at home and abroad by claiming that Trump was exercising his authority under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which allows the president to use military force in self-defense in limited conflicts.

Earlier this week, Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the US attacks, calling them “murder”.

“The US government’s strategy violates the norms of international law,” Petro said.