WASHINGTON (TNND) — The United States military blew up an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific, leaving three survivors, U.S. Southern Command announced Friday morning.
In a post on X including video of the Thursday strike, Southern Command said it “conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.” It did not specify how many people were killed in the incident.
“Intelligence confirmed the low-profile vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Three narco-terrorists survived the strike,” the post said.
The U.S. Coast Guard was called in to conduct a search and rescue mission after the strike, the post said. No American military forces were injured.
It was at least the second strike to happen since the war with Iran started and one of 45 publicly known strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that have killed 157 alleged narco-terrorists.
The Trump administration has said the targeting of the boats is stemming the flow of drugs into the United States and protecting national security. Gen. Francis Donovan, the head of Southern Command, testified to lawmakers this week that the operations had forced naro-terrorist groups to change their patterns but “boat strikes aren’t the answer” looking forward.
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“I believe that actually kinetic strikes will be one of the many tools, and probably not the most effective tool, when we actually look at it as more of a campaign approach,” Donovan said.
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