US strikes another alleged drug vessel, for the first time in Pacific; two killed
The alleged drug vessel struck by the US on Tuesday night on the Pacific side of South America. Photograph: (Screengrab from video on X)
Trump administration officials have repeatedly justified the strikes as counter-narcotics measures necessary to fight drug-trafficking organisations, several of which have been designated as terrorist organisations by the US. At least 36 people have been killed in these American strikes.
The US struck another alleged drug vessel on Tuesday night, this time on the Pacific side of South America, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday. In the eighth such US attack on a boat since Sept. 2, two individuals aboard the vessel were killed, Hegseth said. The other seven strikes had targeted vessels in the Caribbean. A defence official confirmed the vessel was in international waters off of Colombia. Hegseth wrote on social media that the Defense Department conducted the strike at President Trump’s direction and alleged the vessel was operated by a “designated terrorist organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.”
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters,” he added while claiming that no US forces were harmed in the strike.
Hegseth also shared a video of the strike, in which a vessel moving in the waters is hit and engulfed in flames.
At least 34 people have been killed in US strikes on alleged drug boats. The Trump administration has told Congress that the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.
“Narco-terrorists intending to bring position to our shores will find no safe harbour anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Just as Al Qaeda wages war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people.”
“There will be no refuge or forgiveness–only justice,” he added.
At least 36 people have been killed in the American strikes on alleged drug boats.
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Trump administration officials have repeatedly justified the strikes as counter-narcotics measures necessary to fight drug-trafficking organisations, several of which have been designated as terrorist organisations by the US.
News of the strike comes amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and the Colombian government of President Gustavo Petro. On Sunday, Trump denounced Petro as an “illegal drug leader” who is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia.”
Trump added that the US will no longer offer subsidies to Colombia, which has historically been one of its closest allies in Latin America.
US estimates from the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA, indicate that the vast majority of cocaine bound for US cities passes through the Pacific.
Around 10,000 US troops, as well as dozens of military aircraft and ships, have been deployed to the Caribbean as part of the operation.
