Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Saturday that three people were killed in a US attack on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea.
It is the latest in a series of attacks on ships carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific, according to the United States.
“This ship – like every other – was known by our intelligence to be involved in illegal drug trafficking,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X.
He said, “These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home – and they will not succeed.”
Hegseth then compared the alleged drug traffickers to the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
He said, “The department will treat them exactly the same way we treated al-Qaeda. We will continue to locate them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.”
Hegseth also shared video footage showing the moment the boat collided.
Like previous US government videos, areas on the boat are obscured, making it impossible to verify how many people were on the boat.
UN urges US to stop bombing alleged drug smuggling boats
On Friday the United Nations urged Washington to stop its attacks.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said that more than 60 people have been killed in these US attacks since the beginning of September.
Acknowledging the challenges of combating drug trafficking, Turks said in a statement that these people had been killed “in circumstances that find no justification in international law.”
“These attacks and their rising humanitarian cost are unacceptable,” Turki said. “The United States must stop such attacks and take all necessary measures to stop the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”
President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the US.
Edited by: Darko Janjevic