Trump administration says it struck one other alleged drug boat in Pacific, killing 4

The U.S. army carried out one other strike on an alleged “narco-trafficking vessel” within the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, killing 4 folks, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated — marking no less than the fifteenth boat to be hit within the Trump administration’s two-month-long marketing campaign of strikes which have killed greater than 60 folks.  

Hegseth posted a video of a ship strike on X. He stated the strike was performed in worldwide waters, and alleged that the boat was operated by an unnamed designated terrorist group. He stated no U.S. forces have been harmed.

The army started putting alleged drug-carrying boats within the Caribbean Sea early final month, and expanded the operations to the Jap Pacific in current weeks. In some, however not all, circumstances, the Trump administration has stated the boats have been linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. 

The administration has vowed to proceed finishing up the strikes, arguing the U.S. is in an “armed battle” with drug cartels and gangs in Latin America, a lot of which the U.S. has designated as overseas terrorist organizations. 

“The Western Hemisphere is not a protected haven for narco-terrorists bringing medicine to our shores to poison People,” Hegseth wrote Wednesday on X. “The Division of Conflict will proceed to hunt them down and get rid of them wherever they function.”

Mr. Trump has additionally floated the potential for strikes on land-based targets, saying final week, “The land goes to be subsequent.”

The marketing campaign has drawn pushback from some lawmakers who need extra proof that the targets have been truly smuggling medicine and warn that it might draw the U.S. right into a battle within the area. Congress has not approved the strikes, although the Trump administration argues it does not want permission from the legislature. 

Venezuela and Colombia have additionally expressed outrage over the strikes, that are a part of a broader army buildup within the Caribbean, with a number of U.S. ships and 1000’s of troops deploying to the area. 

The administration has heaped strain on the federal government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of partnering with drug traffickers — a cost he denies. A U.S. warship docked in close by Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend, which the Venezuelan authorities known as a “hostile provocation.”