The U.S. military struck three boats it suspected of carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific on Monday, killing eight people, the U.S. Southern Command announced.
The strikes, which the military said were carried out in international waters on what it deemed “designated terrorist organizations,” brought the number killed to at least 95 since the Trump administration’s contentious military campaign against such vessels began in September. The attacks, which also have been carried out around the Caribbean Sea, have drawn outrage from legal experts and some members of Congress, who say the killing of unarmed civilians breaches the laws of war
The military said the eight killed on Monday were all male and included three people each in two of the boats and two in the remaining boat. The three strikes brought the number of attacks on boats to 25. It was one of the deadliest days of the military campaign.
The Trump administration has rapidly built up forces in the region around Venezuela, as it maintains that vessels there are smuggling drugs and criminals into the United States. The Southern Command said the boats attacked on Monday were all traveling along a known narco-trafficking route.
The administration has shown no sign of halting the attacks, even as they have come under intense congressional scrutiny, including from some Republicans. Legal organizations have sued for the release of a secret government memo offering formal justification for the strikes.
Democrats have pushed for the release of classified video of the U.S. military’s first operation targeting a boat in the Caribbean in early September. That attack sparked an uproar in part for its follow-up strike that killed two survivors, which some critics called a war crime.
The three new strikes came just days after the admiral leading the Southern Command, Alvin Holsey, abruptly retired. It was not entirely clear why he left. But one current and one former U.S. official, as well as a congressional official, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said Admiral Holsey had raised concerns early in the mission about the attacks.
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