U.S. Southern Command says it conducted a new 'lethal kinetic strike' on alleged drug boat

U.S. Southern Command said Thursday that the Defense Department carried out another “lethal kinetic strike” at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s direction on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that killed four men.“On Dec.

U.S. Southern Command said Thursday that the Defense Department carried out another “lethal kinetic strike” at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s direction on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that killed four men.

“On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” U.S. Southern Command wrote on X.

The Pentagon has repeatedly said targeted vessels are traveling along known drug routes and carrying narcotics when the United States conducts its strikes. U.S. Southern Command offered a similar explanation Thursday, saying intelligence "confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route."

It’s at least the 22nd known time the Trump administration has launched a military strike against alleged drug-carrying boats in recent months. The last known strike was on Nov. 15. The strikes have killed at least 86 people. The Trump administration has not produced evidence supporting its allegations about the boats, their passengers or their cargo or the numbers of people who were killed or injured or who survived.

Both the House and the Senate have initiated inquiries into a pair of strikes the Trump administration conducted on a vessel in the Caribbean on Sept. 2, which has been met by criticism and claims that the second strike could amount to a war crime.