Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Nov 2: The US military carried out a deadly strike on a vessel operated by a drug-trafficking organisation in international waters of the Caribbean, killing three men on board, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Saturday. The operation, directed by President Donald Trump, resulted in no US casualties, Hegseth said in a post on X.
Hegseth said intelligence showed the targeted vessel was “involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,” travelling along a known trafficking route and carrying narcotics. He framed the operation as part of a broader campaign against cartel-linked groups, declaring that the Department of Defense will “track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them,” and likening the treatment of these groups to the US response against Al-Qaeda.
The Pentagon described the targeted group as one designated by the US as a terrorist organisation, but officials did not name the group publicly. The strike marks at least the 15th US operation in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific since early September, part of an intensified campaign that has reportedly killed dozens of suspected traffickers.
President Trump has defended the strikes as actions in an armed conflict against drug cartels, invoking legal authorities used after the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, lawmakers from both parties have pressed the administration for more information about the legal basis for the operations, the identities of targeted groups, and the criteria used to designate them as targetable.
A group of Senate Democrats — including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — has formally sought legal opinions and a list of designated organisations from defence, state, and intelligence officials, saying members have received incomplete and sometimes conflicting information. Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee have made similar requests, underscoring growing congressional concern about the policy and oversight of lethal strikes outside traditional battlefields.
Investigations and briefings are expected as lawmakers press for transparency over the campaign’s legal rationale, targets and rules of engagement.