The US military says it has attacked two more alleged smuggling boats in the Pacific, killing five “drug terrorists”. The boats were traveling on Thursday (local time) in the eastern Pacific in international waters on a known smuggling route, the responsible regional command of the US military (Southcom) announced on Platform X. The attack was carried out on the orders of Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, who has been calling himself war minister for some time.
As in previous cases of this kind, the military released a short video clip intended to show the attacks from a bird’s eye view. It looks like the boats are being hit by missiles. Neither the military’s information nor the authenticity of the video could initially be verified.
More than 100 people killed
Since September, the US armed forces have repeatedly attacked boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific that are said to be loaded with drugs, citing alleged intelligence findings. No concrete evidence for this representation is presented. According to US media counts, more than 100 people have now been killed in the attacks.
The US government considers its actions to be legitimate and consistently describes the victims as drug smugglers and “terrorists”, but is massively criticized for the extrajudicial killings. From the perspective of UN human rights experts, this violates international law.
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