The US military's Southern Command announced on Monday that it had killed two suspected drug smugglers in a strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific. The operation was carried out under the direction of the unit's new commander, General Francis L Donovan, who was sworn in last Thursday.
The Pentagon stated that the boat was travelling along known narco-trafficking routes. The US Coast Guard is searching for a lone survivor. This attack brings the death toll to at least 130 in 38 such strikes, according to Pentagon statements compiled by the Intercept.
Separately, US forces boarded a sanctioned tanker, the Aquila II, in the Indian Ocean on Monday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the ship had been tracked from the Caribbean as part of an oil quarantine aimed at Venezuela. He vowed to capture all such vessels, stating, 'I don't care if we got to go around the globe to get them; we're going to get them.'
The Aquila II, a Panamanian-flagged tanker under US sanctions for shipping illicit Russian oil, is being held while its fate is decided. It was among at least 16 tankers that fled Venezuela last month after a US raid to apprehend then-President Nicolás Maduro. The ship has often sailed with its transponder off, a practice known as 'running dark'.
