US kills Three In The Pacific In Second Strike On Alleged Drug Boat
US forces have struck a second vessel alleged to be carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean, amid an escalating US campaign against seaborne drug smuggling.
Three people were killed and no US forces were harmed in the strike on Wednesday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said. It comes a day after the US struck another boat in the Pacific, killing two people.
Both vessels were believed to be carrying drugs along known trafficking routes in international waters, Hegseth added.
The strikes are the eighth and ninth against suspected drug boats since 2 September – but the first in waters of the Pacific Ocean. Most US strikes have been in the Caribbean Sea.
“Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” Hegseth posted on X.
“These strikes will continue, day after day. These are not simply drug runners—these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities,” Hegseth continued.
The post was accompanied by a video that appears to show a boat catching fire after being struck by a US bomb.
Floating items are then seen in the water, before they appear to be targeted by a second airstrike.
US President Donald Trump said he has the legal authority to continue bombing boats in international waters, but said he may go to the US Congress if he decides to expand targets to land.
“We’re allowed to do that, and if we do (it) by land, we may go back to Congress,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
He claimed that his administration was “totally prepared” to significantly up the anti-drug operations by extending them on land.
The United States has struck suspected drug vessels, including a semi-submersible ship in the Caribbean, killing at least 37 people.
After surviving a strike last week, two guys were sent back to Ecuador and Colombia.
One guy, named as Andrés Fernando Tufiño, was later freed by Ecuador’s government, which claimed there was no proof of misconduct. According to reports, the other Colombian man is still in the hospital.
News of the strike comes as tensions rise between the Trump administration and the Colombian government of President Gustavo Petro, whom Trump has characterised as “a thug and a bad guy”.
“He better watch it or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country,” Trump said. “He has led his country into a death trap.”
The great bulk of cocaine headed for US cities travels through the Pacific, according to US estimates from the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA.
Although US authorities have warned that the number is increasing, drug seizures in the Caribbean, where the majority of reported US strikes have occurred thus far, make up a comparatively small portion of the total.
The identities of those killed in the strikes and the drug trafficking organizations they are alleged to have belonged to have not been disclosed by US officials to date.
As part of the mission, dozens of military ships and planes have been sent to the Caribbean, along with about 10,000 US personnel.