Eight dead in US strikes on alleged drug boats: US military

Since September, US forces have launched dozens of air strikes on boats that Washington alleges were transporting drugs. Photo / Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo, AFP

The US military said on Thursday that eight people were killed in multiple new strikes on alleged drug boats, bringing the death toll in Washington’s campaign against what it says are narcotics traffickers to at least 115.

US Southern Command, which is responsible for American forces operating in Central and South America, announced two sets of strikes, which were carried out on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, “three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy” were targeted in “international waters”, it said in a statement on X.

“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it said.

Accompanying the statement, posted on X, was a video showing the vessels traveling together at sea and then hit by a series of explosions.

The exact location of the strikes was not immediately made clear. Previous strikes have taken place in the Caribbean or the eastern Pacific.

The military said it had notified the Coast Guard to “activate the Search and Rescue system”, without offering more details about the fate of those aboard the other boats.

Hours later, it issued a second statement about strikes on two more vessels conducted on Thursday, killing five people. Again, it was not clear where the strikes took place.

Since September, the US military has carried out more than 30 such strikes on what it says are boats used to smuggle drugs to the United States, without providing any concrete evidence that the targeted boats are involved in trafficking.

International law experts and rights groups say the strikes likely amount to extrajudicial killings as they have apparently targeted civilians who do not pose an immediate threat to the United States.

In recent months, US President Donald Trump has waged a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s leftist president Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of running a drug cartel.

Maduro denies the allegation and has accused Washington of seeking regime change to gain access to the Latin American country’s massive oil reserves.

- Agence France-Presse