The US carried out another strike at an alleged drug vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people, as part of a months-long maritime campaign now totalling at least 66 deaths.Defense secretary Pete Hegseth shared a video of the strike on his X. “Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO),” wrote Hegseth.The strikes, which began on September 2, have reached 16 strikes that have destroyed at least 17 vessels—16 boats and one semi‑submersible—and killed up to 66 people. Hegseth, sharing the success of the strike, wrote, “Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. The strike was conducted in international waters in the Eastern Pacific.” Though Washington has not publicly provided evidence that the targeted boats posed an imminent threat to the US.The operations coincide with the arrival of an American aircraft carrier to the region, signalling an expansion of US military presence across Caribbean waters amid stepped‑up maritime interdictions. US President Donald Trump has framed the strikes as actions taken during an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, asserting the boats are run by foreign terrorist organisations and vowing to continue targeting them.“We will find and terminate EVERY vessel with the intention of trafficking drugs to America to poison our citizens,” Hegseth wrote, adding, “Protecting the homeland is our TOP priority. NO cartel terrorist stands a chance against the American military,” the defense secretary wrote further in his post.Experts have described the maritime killings as extrajudicial, warning that the government has not offered a clear legal framework, even if the targets were known traffickers. Lawmakers from both parties have pressed for details and a formal justification.Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, indicted in the US on narcoterrorism charges, has accused Washington of “fabricating a war” against him as the maritime campaign intensifies near his country’s maritime approaches.Trump, when asked on CBS’s “60 Minutes” whether the U.S. was heading to war with Venezuela, said, “I doubt it. I don’t think so.” He also agreed that Maduro’s “days are numbered,” and declined saying whether he would authorise land strikes.
