The US military has carried out a second strike on a suspected drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing three men, officials said on Saturday. The attack follows a similar strike on Friday that also left three dead, pushing the total death toll from such operations to over 200 since last year.
The US Southern Command stated on social media that intelligence confirmed the vessel was travelling along narco-trafficking routes and engaged in related operations. “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action,” the post said, adding that no US forces were harmed.
Friday’s and Saturday’s strikes were among four carried out over the previous week. The Trump administration has declared an armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, accusing them of flooding US communities with drugs. However, the White House has not provided definitive evidence that the vessels were involved in drug trafficking, raising questions about the legality of the strikes.
Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have challenged the operations, describing them as “unlawful extrajudicial killings”. Experts have also debated whether the strikes comply with international law.
