The U.S. military carried out another strike on an alleged “narco-trafficking vessel” in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, killing four people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said — marking at least the 15th boat to be hit in the Trump administration’s two-month-long campaign of strikes that have killed more than 60 people.
Hegseth posted a video of a boat strike on X. He said the strike was conducted in international waters, and alleged that the boat was operated by an unnamed designated terrorist organization. He said no U.S. forces were harmed.
An image of Wednesday’s boat strike posted to X by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The military began striking alleged drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean Sea early last month, and expanded the operations to the Eastern Pacific in recent weeks. In some, but not all, cases, the Trump administration has said the boats were linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The administration has vowed to continue carrying out the strikes, arguing the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and gangs in Latin America, many of which the U.S. has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
“The Western Hemisphere is no longer a safe haven for narco-terrorists bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans,” Hegseth wrote Wednesday on X. “The Department of War will continue to hunt them down and eliminate them wherever they operate.”
Mr. Trump has also floated the possibility of strikes on land-based targets, saying last week, “The land is going to be next.”
The campaign has drawn pushback from some lawmakers who want more evidence that the targets were actually smuggling drugs and warn that it could draw the U.S. into a conflict in the region. Congress has not authorized the strikes, though the Trump administration argues it doesn’t need permission from the legislature.
Venezuela and Colombia have also expressed outrage over the strikes, which are part of a broader military buildup in the Caribbean, with several U.S. ships and thousands of troops deploying to the region.
The administration has heaped pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of partnering with drug traffickers — a charge he denies. A U.S. warship docked in nearby Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend, which the Venezuelan government called a “hostile provocation.”
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