The US military said Tuesday it had attacked a boat it accused of drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing five people, as the Trump administration continues its campaign against suspected traffickers in Latin America.
The latest attack brings to at least 240 the number of people killed by U.S. military boat strikes out of more than 70 strikes. The Trump administration began targeting what it calls “narcoterrorists” in September 2025.
As with most of the military’s statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command said it was targeting suspected drug traffickers along known smuggling routes and that “intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narcotics trafficking.”
The military has not provided evidence that the ship was carrying drugs. A video posted on X showed a small boat in the water before being enveloped by an explosion. The ship does not appear to move before being destroyed.
COM SUD 
President Trump has said the United States is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and he has sought to justify the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and the fatal overdoses that are costing American lives. But his administration has provided little evidence to support its claims that he killed “narcoterrorists.”
Critics have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically transported to the United States by land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.
The attacks have drawn scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers and military law scholars. The Pentagon’s watchdog said in May it planned to examine whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when conducting lethal operations, which include the intent, development and execution of a target by a military commander. But the evaluation will not focus on the legality of the strikes.
Tuesday’s strike was one of the few that followed the Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s engagement in September seek approval from U.S. allies in the region to carry out such attacks. Rubio told reporters that while the United States has “the ability to act unilaterally,” it would prefer to work with its allies because it is “the most effective way to do it.”
Rubio’s statements in Peru last month appear to signal a change in strategy. However, Rubio also said the U.S. military would “continue to blow up ships if necessary” and that the approach would be “a strike-by-strike or operation-by-operation determination.”
In August, the US military declared goes on strike on a suspected drug trafficking boat in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people. The military has not identified the style of the boat, but it appears to be a long, semi-submersible vessel, sometimes called “narco submarine.”
In June, the US military carried out a strike in the Caribbean against a boat accused of drug trafficking in the region, killing two people and leaving six survivors.
US lawmakers have already demanded that the Pentagon release “unedited video” of the military’s first-ever strike after reports emerged that the US opted to carry out a follow-up strike against survivors of its initial attack. Two people who survived this September 2025 strike were trying to get back on the boat before it was hit a second time, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Some lawmakers questioned whether this subsequent strike constituted a war crime. The Defense Department and several congressional Republicans insisted survivors may still be in the fight, justifying another strike.
The United States used a plane painted as a civilian plane in the attack on a suspected drug smuggling boat from Venezuela that killed 11 people in September 2025, several officials confirmed to CBS News.
Gn usa
