U.S. Military Strik£ On Suspected Drug Boat In Pacific K!lls 2, Leaves 6 M!ssing
U.S. Military Strike On Suspected Drug Boat In Pacific Kills 2, Leaves 6 Missing
A black-and-white video posted to X showed a speedboat being hit by a visible projectile before erupting into flames.
The U.S. military carried out another strike on a boat suspected of drug smuggling in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, killing two people instantly while leaving six others unaccounted for, as its campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America presses on.
The attack is the latest in a series now exceeding 60 strikes, pushing the total death toll from U.S. military boat strikes past 210 since the Trump administration began targeting those it designates “narcoterrorists” in early September, according to AP.
It remains unclear whether Thursday’s survivors were rescued. In this instance, and following a June 16 strike that left two survivors, U.S. Southern Command said it notified the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard later suspended its search from the June 16 incident with “no signs of survivors or debris,” and offered no comment on the more recent strike.
As with previous operations in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, the military said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes, though it provided no evidence that the vessel was actually carrying drugs.
A black-and-white video posted to X showed a speedboat being hit by a visible projectile before erupting into flames.
President Donald Trump has framed the campaign as an “armed conflict” with cartels and argued the strikes are a necessary measure to curb drug flows into the United States.
However, his administration has produced little evidence to back its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
Critics have challenged both the legality and the effectiveness of the operations, pointing out that much of the fentanyl behind American overdose deaths enters the country overland from Mexico, where it is manufactured using chemicals sourced from China and India.
The strikes have drawn fresh scrutiny on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, U.S. lawmakers demanded the Pentagon release “unedited video” of the very first strike following reports that the military conducted a follow-up attack on survivors.
Two men had survived the initial strike that killed nine others and were clinging to wreckage when the vessel was hit again, killing them. The White House confirmed the second strike, maintaining it was carried out “in self-defence” to ensure the boat was destroyed and was consistent with the laws of armed conflict.
Legal scholars have pushed back sharply, with some arguing that striking survivors would be illegal under any circumstances, armed conflict or not.
The Pentagon’s inspector general announced in May that it would examine whether the military adhered to an established targeting framework in conducting the strikes. The review, however, is narrowly focused on what is known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and does not address the broader question of the strikes’ legality.
