US strike kills three on alleged narco boat as campaign death toll hits 185 | US foreign policy
The US military said Sunday that three men were killed when they crashed into a boat it claimed was “involved in drug smuggling operations” in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
This latest attack, which follows dozens of similar attacks on alleged drug boats in recent months, brings the death toll in the US campaign to at least 185, according to a tally compiled by Agence France-Presse.
As with many previous attacks, the US military’s southern command said: X that the boat crash was “carried out by Designated Terrorist Organizations” and “intelligence confirmed the ship was transiting known drug smuggling routes”.
The military released a video showing a boat engulfed in flames from the explosion moving quickly through the water.
The fact that the Trump administration has not provided conclusive evidence that the ships it has hit since September are involved in drug smuggling has led to debates about the legality of the operations.
Legal experts and human rights groups argue that the attacks could amount to extrajudicial killings because they targeted civilians who did not pose an immediate threat to the United States.
The attacks on the boats began last year as the United States established its largest military presence in the region in generations and came months before the January raid that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges and pleaded not guilty.
Donald Trump said the US was in an “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the US.
In their statement about X, officials said that no US soldiers were injured in the operation.
With Agence-France Presse and Associated Press
