(The Hill) — The U.S. military struck two alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific on Thursday, killing five “narco-terrorists” and bringing the total number of people killed in the Pentagon’s ongoing campaign to over 100.
Three people were killed on the first boat and two people were killed in the strike on the second vessel, the U.S. military announced on social platform X, while including a 30-second video showing both attacks.
The boats were transiting along “known narco-trafficking routes” in the eastern Pacific Ocean and were “engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the U.S. Southern Command said. The vessels were described as being operated by members of designated terrorist organizations, but the post did not specify which terrorist groups.
No U.S. troops were injured in the operations.
The U.S. military has now conducted a minimum of 26 strikes against purported drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 104 alleged narco-terrorists since early September when the campaign began.
The military’s Sept. 2 operation, during which it conducted four strikes against an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean, has been under scrutiny since The Washington Post reported a second attack took place during the mission and killed two survivors clinging to the boat.
But Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said on Thursday that he has seen “no evidence of war crimes” committed in the controversial operation. Some Democrats and law-of-war experts have asserted the follow-up strike constituted a violation of international law.
Elliott Davis contributed.