US kills six in latest strike on alleged drug boat, Hegseth says
The U.S. military killed six people overnight in the 10th reported strike on a boat alleged to be involved in drug smuggling, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on social media Friday.
Hegseth said the operation targeted a vessel in the Caribbean carrying members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal group based in Venezuela that the Trump administration claims to be a “Designated Terrorist Organization.”
As he has alleged after other recent attacks, Hegseth said the boat was “known by our intelligence” to be involved drug running along a “known narcotrafficking route.” He disclosed no evidence verifying that assertion. A black-and-white overhead video accompanying his social media post shows a boat appearing to idle in the water in the moments before it is hit with a projectile and engulfed in flames.
Law of war experts maintain that the strikes — responsible for the reported deaths of at least 43 people since the campaign began in September — are illegal because those slain by U.S. forces aren’t combatants engaged in a armed conflict with the United States but suspected criminals.
The strike follows two others this week that took place in the Pacific Ocean, off South America, and marked an expansion of the Trump administration’s lethal campaign against Latin American groups who Hegseth and other officials equate to militant extremists.
“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth said in the post Friday.
The overnight strike appeared to indicate the U.S. had adjusted its tactics after a strike last week left two survivors who had to be pulled from the water by a Navy rescue helicopter and held temporarily in custody aboard a warship before being repatriated to their home countries.
The return of those two survivors, instead of detaining them as the military would have done against al-Qaida or other known terrorist organizations in previous armed conflicts, has raised further questions about the already murky legal justification the Trump administration is using to conduct the strikes
In virtually all other drug interdictions before last month, the suspects were stopped by U.S. authorities — primarily the Coast Guard — and detained by U.S. law enforcement and charged.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump suggested that the military’s counter-drug operations may expand to include striking targets on land as well. He has asserted he has the authority to direct the deadly attacks because the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with the cartels.
Trump has yet to seek approval from Congress for the military operations. On Wednesday he said he “probably” would consult with Congress to explain “exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.” He added, though, “We don’t have to do that.”
A day later, Trump appeared to rule out seeking lawmakers’ approval for whatever could happen next. “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he told reporters. “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.”
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• Alex Horton and Noah Robertson contributed.