US lawmakers are demanding answers from the Trump administration over military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug ships after reports that a follow-up strike had been ordered to kill survivors of the initial attack.
Following the report, Republican-led committees overseeing the Pentagon vowed to conduct “robust oversight” of U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean.
On Friday, Washington Post reported that the US attack on the boat on September 2 left two survivors, but the second attack was carried out in pursuance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's orders to “kill everyone” on board.
Hegseth called the report “fake news” and President Donald Trump said he believed it “100%.”
The US has expanded its military presence in the Caribbean and carried out a series of lethal strikes on suspected drug smuggling vessels in international waters off Venezuela and Colombia in what it calls a counter-narcotics operation.
More than 80 people have been killed since the beginning of September.
The Trump administration says it is acting in self-defense by destroying ships carrying illegal drugs into the United States.
In its reporting Friday, The Washington Post wrote that Secretary of State Hegseth “gave verbal instructions” to “kill everyone” aboard one of the vessels, and the special operations commander overseeing the operation “ordered a second strike in accordance with Hegseth's instructions.”
Republican and Democratic lawmakers appearing on Sunday talk shows said they support congressional consideration of U.S. military strikes on vessels suspected of drug smuggling in the Caribbean.
The leaders said they did not know whether The Washington Post's report was true, but noted that the attack on survivors of the first missile strike poses a serious legal problem.
“If this is true, this would amount to a war crime,” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said on CBS's Face the Nation.
Republican Legislator Mike Turner said Congress had no information that a subsequent walkout occurred.
“Obviously, if that happened, it would be very serious, and I agree that it would be an illegal act,” Turner, the former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told CBS.
The comments followed the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee's announcement Friday that they planned to conduct “robust oversight” of the strikes.
“The committee is aware of recent news reports—and the Department of Defense's initial response—regarding suspected follow-up strikes on suspected drug vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” the committee's Republican chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker, and his Democratic colleague, Sen. Jack Reed, said in a statement.
“The committee has made inquiries to the department and we will conduct careful monitoring to determine the facts surrounding these circumstances,” they said.
The House Armed Services Committee also followed suit, saying they are “taking bipartisan action to obtain a full accounting of the operation under review.”
In a post on X, Hegseth denounced the accusation, calling it “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory.” He wrote that the series of attacks on the boats were “legal under both American and international law.”
“Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a designated terrorist organization,” he wrote.
On Sunday, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, President Trump defended his defense secretary, saying, “He said he didn't say that. And I believe him 100%.”
Trump said the administration would “look into” the issue and added: “I wouldn't want that – not a second strike.”
On Sunday, Venezuela's National Assembly condemned the boat strikes and promised a “rigorous and thorough investigation” into allegations of a second attack that allegedly killed two survivors.
The Venezuelan government has accused the US of stoking tensions in the region with the aim of overthrowing the government.
The US is not a party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but US military legal advisers have previously said the US should “act in accordance with its provisions.”
Under the convention, countries agree not to interfere with the activities of ships operating in international waters. There are limited exceptions to this rule that allow a state to seize a ship, such as a “hot pursuit” where a ship is pursued from a country's waters to the high seas.
“Force can be used to stop a boat, but it generally needs to be non-lethal,” Professor Luke Moffett of Queen's University Belfast said recently. told BBC Verify.
