Pentagon says four killed in US strike on alleged drug boat in Caribbean
The US military has announced that a strike on a boat allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea killed four people.
The Pentagon said the boat suspected of being used to move narcotics from Latin America to the United States via the Caribbean Sea was targeted on Saturday as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing so-called campaign against international drug traffickers.
US Southern Command claimed it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. On August 25, the Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere also attacked a go-fast vessel in the Caribbean, killing four people the command claimed were “narco-terrorists.”
At least 231 people have been killed in 69 strikes since the Trump administration began its boat attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea about a year ago.
The US Southern Command did not provide any evidence to prove that the people killed in the attack were actually drug smugglers or that the boat targeted in the strike had any drugs aboard. A video posted by the military on X showed an image of what appeared to be a moving boat followed by a sudden flash.
Lawmakers and legal experts have raised serious doubt about the legality of the US military strikes, killing untried people suspected of drug smuggling.
The United Nations human rights chief last year announced that US military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for an investigation into the US strikes.
Earlier this month, a group of United Nations-appointed human rights experts renewed calls for an investigation into US strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats as the so-called campaign reached its first anniversary.
Those responsible for violations of international law, “including military and civilian chains of command,” must be held accountable, the panel appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement.
The UN experts rejected the US government’s legal justification for the lethal strikes and called for an end to the “extrajudicial” and “unlawful killings.”
“International law does not permit governments to simply murder alleged criminals at sea, just as the police cannot summarily execute people on the street in United States territory,” the statement said.
It noted that “victims and their families are entitled to full reparation, including compensation, and guarantees that such killings will not recur.”
Pentagon probe finds ‘cascade of preventable failures’ behind US strike on Minab school
New images reveal severe destruction at US base in Kuwait after Iranian strikes
Report: US military death toll in war on Iran exceeds Department of War’s public count
Iran claim basketball bronze at 2026 Asian Games, win delegation’s first medal
Yemen warns Saudi escalation will draw stronger response
Iraqi MP: Resistance weapons aimed at enemies, terrorist groups
South Korea rejects Hormuz deployment plan
VIDEO | News Review: US accused of understating troop deaths in war on Iran
Qalibaf: No reopening of Hormuz until US meets Iran’s conditions
Top Iranian MP mocks US claims of fuel crisis, warns against miscalculation
Israel has carried out 1,068 incursions into Syria since Assad’s fall: Report
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
