Pentagon: Three dead in new US attack on drug boat

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said that US forces conducted a strike in the Eastern Pacific on a boat allegedly loaded with drugs, killing three people.

"The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and was carrying narcotics," Hegseth said in a post on X.

"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."

Hours earlier, Hegseth posted about a separate strike on Tuesday also in the Pacific on a boat allegedly carrying drugs. That operation killed "two narco-terrorists," Hegseth said, adding that it was conducted in international waters, without specifying exactly where.

Tuesday's strike was the first known US attack off the west coast of Latin America, after attacks reported by Washington had always referred to attacks in the Caribbean Sea.

Hegseth said that both targeted vessels were being "operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization." He compared drug cartels to the Islamist terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.

"These strikes will continue, day after day," Hegseth said in the more recent post.

In recent weeks, the US military has repeatedly fired on boats of suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean. More than 30 people are said to have been killed in these actions.

The actions have drawn widespread criticism, partly because the US government initially failed to give a legal basis for the strikes, which critics say amount to extrajudicial killings in international waters.