(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The US military has carried out its eighth known strike on a boat it claimed, without providing evidence, was carrying drugs, but this time the vessel was bombed in the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to US War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The previous seven boats were targeted in the Caribbean, and striking one in the Pacific marks an expansion of the US military campaign. US War Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the strike killed two “narco-terrorists,” a term the administration uses to justify the extrajudicial executions at sea for an alleged crime that does not receive the death penalty in the US.
“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” Hegseth wrote on X.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike,” he added.
Hegseth didn’t say where exactly the boat was targeted, but a US official speaking to The New York Times said it was hit while off the coast of Colombia.
At least 34 people have been killed in the US bombing campaign since it started on September 2, according to numbers released by the administration. In several cases, family members have insisted that the victims were not drug traffickers, and Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused the US of murder over a strike that killed a Colombian fisherman, he said had “no ties to the drug trade.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been very critical of the US bombing campaign, saying earlier this week that the strikes “go against all of our tradition.”
“When you kill someone, you should know, if you’re not at war, not in a declared war, you really need to know someone’s name at least,” Paul said. “You have to accuse them of something. You have to present evidence. So all of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.”
US officials have been clear that the ultimate goal of the US military campaign in the Caribbean, which has involved a substantial buildup of US forces, is to carry out regime change in Venezuela. President Trump confirmed last week that he has authorized the CIA to take covert action inside Venezuela and that the US is considering attacks on Venezuelan territory.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
