Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday morning that the U.S. military conducted strikes against two alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing six “narco-terrorists.”
Hegseth said that both strikes, which took place on Sunday, were conducted in international waters against vessels operated by a designated terrorist organization. The terrorist group the Defense secretary was referring to is unclear.
Both boats were carrying narcotics and were transiting along a “known narco-trafficking transit route” in the Eastern Pacific, according to Hegseth.
Three alleged “narco-terrorists” were on each boat and no U.S. forces were injured in the operations, he added.
“Under President Trump, we are protecting the homeland and killing these cartel terrorists who wish to harm our country and its people,” Hegseth said in a post on social platform X.
The Pentagon chief attached a 30-second video of both strikes, showing the vessels being struck and engulfed in flames.
The U.S. military has conducted at least 19 strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in both the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific since the campaign kicked off in early September, killing a minimum of 76 people.
The lethal strikes have ignited blowback from Democrats and some Republicans as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been asking the administration for more information about the ongoing operations.
The administration has provided at least 13 briefings, including a classified, closed-door one on Wednesday in the Senate that was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hegseth. The briefing did not quell all of the concerns raised by Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, but others such as Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that lawmakers received a general explanation of how the targets are picked, although he still had more questions about the “precise structure.”
As the strikes have gone on, the administration has built up a massive military presence in the U.S. Southern Command area, sending warships, fighter jets, spy planes and a Marine group as the tensions between Washington and Venezuela have ramped up.
Trump and other administration officials have characterized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro an “illegitimate leader” and during a recent interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” the president indicated that Maduro’s days are numbered.
Trump has signaled at times that he could order a land strike inside Venezuela, but has not done so yet.
