The United States says it carried out two military strikes on vessels in the eastern Pacific that it alleges were involved in drug smuggling, killing six people.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the strikes, carried out on Sunday, targeted two boats that U.S. intelligence had identified as linked to illicit narcotics trafficking and were “carrying narcotics” while transiting a known trafficking route. He said both attacks occurred in international waters, that there were three men on each vessel described by officials as narco‑terrorists, all six were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed.
The latest attacks are the fourth this month in a campaign that began in the Caribbean in September and has since expanded into the Pacific. U.S. authorities say earlier strikes in the Pacific and Caribbean killed at least eight people; officials say 18 vessel strikes overall have killed dozens.
The Trump administration has presented the operations as counterterrorism measures after designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Hegseth and other U.S. officials have framed the campaign as protecting the homeland by targeting cartel operatives they say aim to harm the United States.
The actions have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and some international officials. United Nations rights chief Volker Türk said last month the strikes lack justification under international law, calling them unacceptable and urging Washington to stop operations that risk extrajudicial killings regardless of the alleged criminal conduct of those targeted.
Beyond grainy footage released by the U.S., officials have not publicly produced clear evidence that the vessels were carrying drugs. Observers have also questioned why U.S. forces would use lethal force in international waters instead of waiting to intercept suspect boats once they enter a coastal state’s territorial waters.
The campaign has increased regional tensions, particularly with Venezuela. Washington has accused President Nicolás Maduro of links to so‑called narcoterrorists, and the concentration of strikes near Venezuelan waters has fueled speculation about the potential for wider confrontation. President Trump has said outright war with Venezuela is unlikely, but has suggested Maduro’s “days are numbered.”