 "US conducts fresh strike on alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, kills 4")
The United States military conducted yet another deadly strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, killing at least four people. The Pentagon confirmed the death toll and said that the attack took place on Thursday. The strike came as the administration of US President Donald Trump has faced renewed scrutiny for its recent attacks in the region.
Experts are now arguing that these attacks could constitute a war crime. In a post on X, the US Southern Command said the latest strike was directed by Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth. “On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organisation,” Centcom wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the statement further reads.
On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and… pic.twitter.com/pqksvxM3HP
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) December 4, 2025
More than 80 alleged drug smugglers were killed
It is pertinent to note that the Trump administration has killed more than 80 alleged drug smugglers in the months-long campaign. However, revelations over the September 2 strike have prompted renewed scrutiny and investigations from bipartisan committees in Congress.
The White House has denied that Hegseth ordered the second strike on the vessel following an initial strike. Instead, they said the second strike that appeared to kill two survivors of the first attack was ordered by Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley. At that time, the White House said that the second strike was still in compliance with the laws of armed conflict.
Legal experts have said it is a war crime to target unarmed combatants. Interestingly, the US military’s own manual says it is illegal to fire on shipwrecks. Bradley appeared on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a series of closed-door briefings. He denied that he had been ordered to kill all the people on board.
After his testimony, the American lawmakers gave conflicting accounts of the briefings. “Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to The Associated Press news agency.
“The order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” said Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Smith mentioned that the video of the attack showed the survivors were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water – until the missiles come and kill them.”
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