US lawmakers demand answers over Hegseth Venezuela boat strike reports

US lawmakers are pressing the Trump administration for answers about military strikes on suspected drug ships in Venezuela, following reports that a follow-up strike was ordered to kill survivors of the first attack.

Republican-led committees that oversee the Pentagon vowed to conduct “robust oversight” of U.S. boat attacks in the Caribbean following the report.

on friday, Washington Post Two people survived a US attack on a boat on September 2, but a second attack was carried out to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order to “kill everyone” on the ship.

Hegseth called the report “fake news” and President Donald Trump said he believed her “100%.”

The United States has expanded its military presence in the Caribbean and launched a series of deadly attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling in international waters off Venezuela and Colombia as part of what it calls a counter-narcotics operation.

More than 80 people have been killed since the beginning of September.

The Trump administration says it acted in self-defense by destroying boats carrying illegal drugs to the United States.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Secretary Hegseth “gave a verbal instruction” to “kill everyone” on such a ship and that the Special Operations commander overseeing the operation “ordered a second attack to comply with Hegseth’s instructions.”

Republican and Democratic lawmakers appearing on talk shows Sunday said they support congressional investigations into U.S. military strikes on ships suspected of drug smuggling in the Caribbean.

The leaders said they did not know whether the Washington Post report was accurate, but that attacking survivors of the first missile attack raised major legal concerns.

“If this is true, this rises to the level of a war crime,” Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said on CBS Face the Nation.

Republican lawmaker Mike Turner said Congress had no knowledge that the follow-up strike had occurred.

“Obviously if this were to happen, it would be very serious, and I agree that would be an illegal act,” Turner, the former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told CBS.

The comments came after the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee announced Friday that they plan to conduct “robust oversight” of the attacks.

“The Committee is aware of recent news and the Department of Defense’s initial response regarding subsequent allegations of attacks on suspected narcotics vessels in SOUTHCOM’s area of ​​responsibility,” Senator Roger Wicker, the committee’s Republican chairman, and his Democratic counterpart, Senator Jack Reed, said in a statement. he said.

“The Committee referred investigations to the Department and we will conduct rigorous oversight to determine the facts surrounding these circumstances,” they said.

The House Armed Services Committee followed suit, saying it was “taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”

Hegseth countered the accusation in a post about X, calling it “fabricated, inflammatory, and insulting.” He wrote that the series of attacks on boats were “legal under both U.S. and international law.”

“Every trafficker we killed was affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” he wrote.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, President Trump defended his secretary of defense, saying: “He said he didn’t say that. And I believe him 100%.”

Trump said the administration would “look into” the matter and added, “I wouldn’t want a second attack on this.”

Venezuela’s National Assembly on Sunday condemned the boat attacks and vowed to conduct a “rigorous and comprehensive investigation” into accusations of a second attack that allegedly killed two survivors.

The Venezuelan government accused the United States of increasing tensions in the region with the aim of overthrowing the government.

The United States is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, but legal advisers to the US military have previously said the United States must “act in a manner consistent with the provisions of this convention.”

According to the agreement, countries agree not to interfere with ships operating in international waters. There are limited exceptions to this that allow a state to seize a ship, such as “hot pursuit” in which a ship is chased through a country’s waters into the high seas.

“Force can be used to stop a boat, but generally these should be non-lethal measures,” Professor Luke Moffett, from Queens University Belfast, told BBC Verify recently.