US Southern Command said four people it called narco-terrorists were killed in a strike on a go-fast vessel in the Caribbean, the latest in a campaign that has killed more than 220 since September 2025.
The US military said four people were killed on Sunday in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea. Reuters reported that US Southern Command said on X it carried out a lethal strike on a go-fast boat operating on established trafficking routes, citing what it called confirmed intelligence that the boat was involved in narcotics trafficking. The command called the dead narco-terrorists and did not release further identifying details.
The Associated Press, in a separate account of the same announcement, said the attack brought the death toll in the boat-strike campaign to at least 235 people in 70 strikes since September 2025. The military did not provide public evidence that this vessel was carrying drugs. A video posted on X showed an explosion destroying a moving boat, AP reported.
Reuters noted that human rights groups and independent UN experts have called the series of strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings. It cited Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, as saying there were reasonable grounds to believe such attacks constituted the crime against humanity of murder under customary international law.
The Trump administration has said vessels struck since September 2025 were transporting narcotics and has described an armed conflict with cartels. AP reported that Washington is also pursuing arrangements with allied governments to extend operations onto land in Latin American countries, and that Ecuador began similar missions with the United States in March.
Southern Command has not named the four people killed or the flag of the boat. Rights groups have continued to dispute the legal basis of the campaign, while the administration has presented the strikes as a response to drug flows and overdose deaths.
People Sentiments Negative
- Rights groups cited by Reuters condemned the strikes as extrajudicial killings.
- The administration has defended the attacks as action against what it calls narcoterrorists.