US Southern Command said a 4 October strike on a go-fast vessel in the Caribbean killed four people it called narco-terrorists. Rights groups have challenged the campaign's legality.
The US military said four people were killed on 4 October in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea, Reuters reported, citing US Southern Command.
Southern Command said Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, under its direction, carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel on established narco-trafficking routes. It said confirmed intelligence showed the vessel was involved in narco-trafficking and that the operation killed four people it called narco-terrorists. The command did not publish the vessel's flag, the names of those killed or the precise coordinates in the releases cited here.
Reuters reported that the Trump administration has said vessels struck since September 2025 were transporting narcotics, and that strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed more than 220 people. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and independent UN experts have called the strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings, Reuters said.
UN special rapporteur Ben Saul has said there are reasonable grounds to believe such attacks constituted the crime against humanity of murder under customary international law, according to Reuters. The American Civil Liberties Union has described the administration's claims about those targeted as unsubstantiated.
The 4 October action is the latest in that series. Independent public evidence identifying the cargo or the dead was not included in the Southern Command statement summarized by Reuters.
People Sentiments Negative
- Reuters reported that human rights groups and UN experts have condemned the strikes as extrajudicial killings.
- The ACLU, cited by Reuters, has called the administration's claims about those targeted unsubstantiated.