Journalism of Courage
The US military carried out its 20th strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean earlier this week and killed all four people on board the vessel, a Defence Department official said on Thursday, CNN reported. The strike has brought the cumulative death toll in the administration’s lethal campaign against drug boats to 80 since early September.
“The strike occurred in the Caribbean and four narco-terrorists were killed, no survivors,” a Defence Department official told CNN. Trump administration’s officials have acknowledged that they weren’t aware of the identities of the individuals who were aboard the boat before the attack took place.
Earlier, Hegseth had announced the US military’s 18th and 19th strike against the alleged drug boats on Sunday on two separate vessels, each with three people aboard. In a post on X, the defence secretary had confirmed that the strikes killed all six of them.
A CNN report had earlier stated the US military is using a variety of weapons, including gunships, drones and fighter jets to carry out the strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean in order to disrupt the flow of drugs into United States.
The military’s 20th strike comes a day after the US Navy’s largest and one of the most advanced aircraft carriers, the Gerald R. Ford, arrived in the Caribbean after a deployment in Europe.
Critics have said that military strikes in the Caribbean could violate US and international law, however, Justice Department has told the US Congress that it doesn’t require its approval to carry out the strikes.
