U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth holds a briefing on the Iran war at the Pentagon in Washington on Tuesday.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The U.S. military said on Tuesday it struck a vessel in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people, in the latest such attack that rights groups label as “extrajudicial killings” and Washington describes as targeting “narcoterrorists.”
The U.S. Southern Command alleged that the vessel struck on Tuesday was operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” that it did not identify.
It said that no U.S. military forces were harmed. It described those killed as “male narcoterrorists,” without offering details.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narcotrafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narcotrafficking operations,” the U.S. Southern Command said on X.
U.S. military kills four in strike on boat in eastern Pacific Ocean
The U.S. military has made numerous such deadly strikes in the Eastern Pacific in recent weeks.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been striking vessels that it accuses of transporting narcotics.
The U.S. military’s strikes on such vessels have killed more than 170 people since September.
Experts and human rights advocates, both in the U.S. and globally, have questioned the legality of the strikes.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say the strikes amount to “unlawful extrajudicial killings.”
The American Civil Liberties Union casts the assertions by the Trump administration against those it targets as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”