Survivors of U.S. military strike in Caribbean were legitimate targets for second attack, admiral to tell lawmakers
Written by: Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – A U.S. military commander is expected to tell lawmakers on Thursday that survivors of a military offensive in the Caribbean were legitimate targets for a second strike because their ships were still believed to contain illegal drugs, a U.S. official told Reuters.
On September 2, the US military launched a strike in the Caribbean that killed 11 suspected drug traffickers.
The US military launched a second attack on their ship, raising questions about the legality of the operation, officials said.
Adm. Frank M. Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command, will tell lawmakers at a classified briefing Thursday that the two survivors were legitimate military targets because they were thought capable of continuing drug trafficking, the official said.
Bradley, who now heads U.S. Special Operations Command, will be joined by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine during the closed hearing, the official added.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The strike in early September sparked bipartisan scrutiny from Congress and concerns about the legality of the administration’s moves. So far there have been 20 US military strikes against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing more than 80 people.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that he watched in real time the first US attack on an alleged drug-smuggling ship in September, but did not see any survivors in the water or the second deadly attack, which he said was carried out in the “fog of war”. However, he defended Bradley’s decision to carry out the next attack.
“Admiral Bradley ultimately made the right decision to sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth said.
Trump, who told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that he did not want a second attack, said he was unaware of the second attack while largely voicing his support on Tuesday.
U.S. officials told Reuters that Hegseth ordered deadly attacks on drug ships, including the attack in question in early September, as part of the Trump administration’s broader campaign to equate suspected drug traffickers with terrorists, over the objections of many legal experts.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Michael Perry)
