The U.S. military attacked a boat in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday, killing three people. The strike raised the death toll to at least 180 in the campaign by the United States against people it accuses of smuggling drugs at sea.
Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, head of the Southern Command, ordered the strike, the command said in a statement on social media. It included a 12-second video showing a boat zooming through the water and then exploding.
Legal specialists on the use of lethal force have said that the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military cannot deliberately target civilians who do not pose an imminent threat of violence, even if they are suspected of engaging in criminal acts. The Trump administration has not provided evidence of drug smuggling.
The Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean from its headquarters near Miami, cited unspecified intelligence in the announcement. It said the boat had been traveling on “known narco-trafficking routes” and was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
The attack, the 52nd since the U.S. campaign against the boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific started in early September, continued a recent increase in the pace of strikes.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
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