WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military on Sept. 2 to kill all 11 people on a ship suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean because they were on a domestic list of narco-terrorists who U.S. intelligence and military officials believed would be lethal targets, the commander overseeing the operation told lawmakers. briefings last week, according to two U.S. officials and one person familiar with congressional briefings.
Such a list includes persons who have the right to be the target of an attack, including a fatal one, if such an opportunity is given. The commander who oversaw the Sept. 2 strikes, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, told lawmakers that U.S. intelligence officials confirmed the identities of the 11 people on the boat as legitimate targets, and the military then carried out the airstrikes as part of President Donald Trump's campaign. military campaign against suspected drug-smuggling vessels, U.S. officials and a person familiar with congressional briefings said.
Details that the 11 people on the boat were on a domestic US military target list had not previously been disclosed. This adds another dimension to the September 2 operation, which has been mired in a quagmire. controversy over the military's decision to launch a second strike after the first left two survivors in the water.
Lawmakers raised questions about whether the second strike violated international law. A key issue in the dispute over the second strike was whether Hegseth Bradley, who is commander of the US Special Operations Command, ordered everyone on the boat to be killed.
An administration official said Bradley made it clear in his briefings with lawmakers that he acted fully within the law throughout the operation. “As in all such actions, uniformed JAG personnel provided advice and guidance every step of the way,” the official said in a written statement, adding that the vessel was targeted because it was “transporting cocaine” and was “associated with a cartel designated by the President as a terrorist organization.”
“The cumulative impact of these narco-terrorist shipments directly threatens Americans and the national security interests of the United States,” the official said.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. US Special Operations Command declined to comment.
The Pentagon said 22 strikes on suspected drug ships killed 86 people, 11 in the Caribbean and 11 in the eastern Pacific. The administration did not provide any evidence to support its claims about the vessels or the people on board.
Bradley spent more than eight hours on Capitol Hill on Thursday. briefing to a dozen members of Congress and their staff about what happened during the operation. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Cain also attended the briefings.
This Bradley account of the detailed timeline and explanations of events throughout the Sept. 2 operation, told to lawmakers in private briefings, is based on interviews with two U.S. officials and people familiar with congressional briefings.
Bradley told lawmakers that the orders he received from Hegseth were to kill people on an approved target list that included everyone on the boat, then destroy the drugs and sink the boat, these sources said.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters Monday that “Secretary Hegseth has authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes.” She added that Bradley “worked well within his authority and within the law directing the engagement to ensure the destruction of the boat and the removal of the threat to the United States of America.”
Bradley told lawmakers that the second strike killed two survivors but did not sink the boat, so he ordered third and fourth strikes to complete the mission, the officials and a person familiar with the congressional briefings said.
Hegseth has said he observed the operation on September 2 but “did not personally see any survivors.” During a White House cabinet meeting last week, he defended the second strike, saying Bradley “made the right choice.”
“It’s called the fog of war,” Hegseth said.
Bradley was pressed during a joint briefing Thursday with the heads of the House and Senate Armed Services committees about whether Hegseth gave the order to kill everyone on board, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the briefing. Bradley, citing an approved list of targets, said Hegseth ordered him to kill everyone on board and destroy the ship, the official and a person familiar with the briefing said.
At another briefing, Bradley was asked whether Hegseth had given him a “no quarter order,” which is an illegal military directive to kill all enemy combatants and show no mercy even if they surrender or are seriously injured, one of the U.S. officials and a second person familiar with the briefing said. They said Bradley responded that he had not been given such an order and would not have carried it out if it had been given. The White House and Hegseth said no illegal orders were given.
Unlike a “no quarter” order, an order to kill everyone on a target list is not prohibited by US and international law.
Three sources said Bradley said the military hit the boat with GBU-69, a precision-guided munition that was configured to explode in mid-air, meaning it exploded in the air rather than on impact. He said the explosion killed nine people on board, capsized the boat and damaged the rear end, including the engine.
Another part of the boat broke off and caught fire, but the main part of the boat did not catch fire. Because of the damage, the boat is unlikely to be able to continue sailing, Bradley told lawmakers.
Bradley said he watched the two survivors in the wreckage for more than 30 minutes.
He told lawmakers there were bags of cocaine on the boat that were not discarded in the first explosion. Because the bags of cocaine were not seen floating in the water, Bradley said he believed they were strapped down and remained tied down at the time of the explosion, making it likely that drugs were still under the capsized boat.
The cocaine was wrapped in plastic waterproof bags, which likely made them more buoyant and may have helped prevent the boat from sinking, he told lawmakers.
The two survivors made it to the side of the boat that wasn't on fire and were able to turn it over and eventually stand on it.
Bradley observed them take off their shirts to check each other for injuries and told lawmakers they did not appear to have any visible injuries. He said military surveillance from above zoomed in to ensure survivors were not injured or bled to death.
A U.S. warplane spotted survivors waving their arms overhead but could not say with certainty whether they were signaling the plane, Bradley told lawmakers, according to three sources.
He said he determined that while the boat had sustained enough damage that it might not be able to move, it could still continue to float or drift.
US intelligence also spotted another larger vessel in the area and determined that the damaged vessel would have connected with it to transfer the drugs to the larger vessel.
The larger boat was not on Bradley's approved target list, so he did not have the authority to hit it. Because the U.S. did not have reliable information about who was on the larger boat, waiting to see if it would come to try to salvage the damaged boat and the two survivors was not a viable option, he said.
Three sources said Bradley explained that his decision to attack the boat containing the survivors was because the drugs had not been destroyed and the people on the boat had not surrendered or been visibly injured but were still on the list of approved targets. And although the survivors were not armed, he said the mission identified drugs as a threat to the United States, effectively viewing cocaine as a weapon that could endanger Americans.
Despite this, Bradley acknowledged to lawmakers that U.S. intelligence did not conclude the drugs were headed to the United States. Rather, it showed the boat was heading south toward another South American country, Suriname, as first reported by CNN. Bradley told lawmakers the boat was ultimately headed to Europe or Africa.
