Shocking video evidence has emerged detailing the final hour of two men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling vessel, only to be killed in a subsequent attack. The footage, shown to US senators in a classified briefing, has ignited a fierce debate over the legality of a military campaign authorised by the Trump administration.
The Fatal Hour Captured on Video
According to sources familiar with the recording, the incident began on 2 September with a US airstrike on a boat in the Caribbean. An airburst munition killed nine crew members instantly. However, two men survived the initial blast.
The video then shows the pair, described as shirtless and unarmed with no visible communications equipment, clinging to a severed section of the hull. For approximately an hour, they desperately tried to turn the wreckage upright in the water, apparently unaware that US military commanders were deliberating a follow-up strike.
"The video follows them for about an hour as they tried to flip the boat back over. They couldn’t do it," one source told Reuters. The footage concludes with three additional munitions being fired, killing the two survivors. "You could see their faces, bodies... Then boom, boom, boom," the source added.
Mounting Legal and Political Scrutiny
The video was shown to senators behind closed doors amid growing concern that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials may have committed a war crime. This scrutiny intensified after a Washington Post report alleged Hegseth had verbally directed the military to "kill them all" during the operation—a claim denied by Admiral Frank Bradley, who commanded the attack.
Democratic Congressman Jim Himes, who viewed the footage, described it as "one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service." He stated, "Any American who sees the video that I saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors."
Reactions split along party lines. Republican Senator Tom Cotton defended the strike, saying he saw "two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight." This interpretation was strongly contested by legal experts.
A Legally Shaky 'War on Drug Boats'
The strike was part of a broader campaign that has seen 22 attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in at least 87 deaths. The Trump administration argues the US is at war with drug traffickers, making such strikes legal under the rules of armed conflict. Most independent legal scholars vehemently reject this rationale.
Rebecca Ingber, a former legal adviser to the US State Department, told The Guardian, "It is manifestly unlawful to kill someone who’s been shipwrecked." The US Department of Defense’s own Law of War manual explicitly forbids attacks on shipwrecked persons who are not engaging in hostilities, citing such actions as a "clearly illegal" order.
Professor Ryan Goodman of New York University challenged Senator Cotton's view online, asking how he detected the men were trying to "stay in the fight" versus "clinging to dear life." Goodman emphasised that even under the administration's contested legal framework, the survivors were not engaged in "active combat activities."
Despite President Donald Trump vowing to release the full video, the Pentagon has not yet made it public. The episode raises profound questions about transparency, accountability, and the legal boundaries of using military force against non-state actors engaged in criminal activity.
