Adding to the series of strikes by the United States on alleged drug-carrying vessels in international waters, yet another such attack was conducted on Saturday (local time) on the direction of the US President Donald Trump.
An alleged narco-trafficking vessel was struck by US forces in the Caribbean on Saturday, said US secretary of war Pete Hegseth.
“Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Caribbean,” he wrote in a post on X.
Hegseth claimed that they had intelligence that the vessel was carrying drugs and was transiting along a “known narco-trafficking route”. Three people, whom Hegseth described as “male narco-terrorists” were killed in the strike.
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“This vessel—like EVERY OTHER—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike,” the secretary of war said.
{{/usCountry}}“This vessel—like EVERY OTHER—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike,” the secretary of war said.
{{/usCountry}}Comparing the alleged narco-terrorists to Al-Qaeda, Pete Hegseth said that such strikes by the US forces will continue. “These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home—and they will not succeed. The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them,” he wrote.
The post on X was accompanied by a video footage of the strike, which shows a vessel bursting into flames as a cloud of smoke rises up.
This fresh strike comes just days after the US forces conducted a similar strike in the eastern Pacific earlier this week, in which, four alleged “narco-terrorists” were killed.