WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out another accused of trafficking drugs in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat 鈥渨as transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.鈥� It said the strike killed three people. A video linked to the post shows a boat floating in the water before bursting into flames.
Friday鈥檚 attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration鈥檚 strikes on alleged drug boats to at least 148 people in at least 43 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in 鈥渁rmed conflict鈥� with cartels in Latin America and has as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing 鈥渘arcoterrorists.鈥�
Critics of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. , where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.
The boat strikes also following the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers and the killings were murder, if not a war crime.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
