The U.S. military on Friday said it carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean, killing three — months after similar strikes caused controversy at the Defense Department.
The vessel was operated by designated terrorist organization and moved along “known narco-trafficking routs in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) said in a statement shared on social platform X.
No U.S. military personnel were injured in the incident.
Southcom commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan directed the strike as part of “Operation Southern Spear.” The X post included video of the boat traveling before it was struck and then exploded.
It is unclear which terrorist group Southcom referred to.
The fatalities from the latest strike raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 133 people since September. Friday’s attack was the second this week after Southcom conducted a strike in the Eastern Pacific that killed two “narco-terrorists” and left one survivor.
