October 23, 2025 12:12 AM IST
First published on: Oct 23, 2025 at 12:12 AM IST
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Hegseth compared the alleged drug traffickers to the terror group that conducted the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. (Photo: Screengrab)
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said that the military conducted a strike against an alleged drug vessel, killing two people.
According to Hegseth, the strike, the eighth since the US military started blowing up alleged drug-carrying boats, was carried out on Tuesday night.
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First strike on alleged drug vessel in Pacific Ocean
Unlike the seven previous strikes in the Caribbean, on Tuesday night, the US military targeted a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during activities to mark the upcoming Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Camp Pendleton, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
With the two deaths on Tuesday night, the toll from all the strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats has reached at least 34 people.
In a brief video released by Hegseth, a small boat, half-filled with brown packages, is seen moving along the water. Several seconds into the video, the boat explodes and is seen floating motionless on the water in flames.
Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.
Sharing the video, Hegseth also compared the alleged drug traffickers to the terror group that conducted the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Hegseth said, adding that “there will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice.”
President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and is relying on the same legal authority used by President George W Bush’s administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the 9/11 terror attack.
Survivors from previous strike sent back
However, the Trump administration has also sidestepped prosecuting any of the occupants of the alleged drug-running vessels after it returned two survivors of an earlier strike to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.
Ecuadorian officials later said that they released the man who was returned to their country, saying that they had no evidence he had committed a crime in their country.
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Hegseth compared the alleged drug traffickers to the terror group that conducted the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. (Photo: Screengrab) 
