US Southern Command said Thursday that Ministry of Defense carried out another “lethal kinetic strike” at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on a ship in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people.
“On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Lance conducted a fatal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a designated terrorist organization,” US Southern Command wrote on X.
The Pentagon has repeatedly said the targeted vessels ply known drug trafficking routes and are carrying drugs when the United States launches strikes. US Southern Command on Thursday offered a similar explanation, saying intelligence “confirmed that the vessel was transporting illegal drugs and was transiting a known drug trafficking route.”
This is at least the 22nd known time the Trump administration has launched a military strike against suspected drug vessels in recent months. The last known strike occurred on November 15th. The strikes killed at least 86 people. The Trump administration has not provided evidence to back up its claims about the boats, their passengers or cargo, or the number of people who were killed, injured or survived.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have investigations initiated in a pair of strikes the Trump administration carried out on a ship in the Caribbean on Sept. 2, which were met with criticism and claims that a second strike could amount to a war crime.
The White House said Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley, then head of the Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a second strike on a boat coming from Venezuela believed to be carrying the drugs that killed survivors of an earlier strike that day.
Ministry of Defense official told NBC News On Thursday, Bradley said the two survivors were legitimate military targets.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson also defended strikes Tuesday's statement said the operations “are legal under both U.S. and international law, and all actions comply with the Law of Armed Conflict.” These actions were also approved by the best military and civilian lawyers throughout the chain of command.”
President Donald Trump said this week that he would “no problem” with the release of any available video second strike on September 2 and said he supported “decision to dislodge the boats” when asked if he supported killing survivors.
“Whoever piloted these boats, most of them are gone, but whoever piloted these boats is guilty of trying to kill people in our country,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
