on Sunday announced that a lethal strike was conducted on another vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people on board.
The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations” at the direction of the leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the Southern Command claimed in a press release.
Three men on the vessel were killed, but no U.S. forces died in the attack on the ship, according to the Southern Command.
This was the 55th strike since the U.S. began targeting boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific in early September.
The latest strike brings the death toll in the attacks on ships carrying people it accuses of drug smuggling to at least 186.
The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed in the strikes since last fall or provide evidence of drugs on board.
Last month, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth argued, “Going on offense with Operation Southern Spear has restored deterrence against the narco-terrorist cartels that profited from poisoning Americans.”
The administration has been scrutinized in recent months over the strikes by Democrats and even some Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people.
“I look at my colleagues who say theyre pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a sââ- about these people in the boats,” Paul said in January. “Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”
The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.
