Watch: US military kills four in strike on narco-terrorist boat in Eastern Pacific

New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 5, 2025 06:19 IST

The US military said on Thursday it killed four men in a targeted strike on what officials described as a narco-terrorist vessel operating in international waters in the Eastern Pacific, the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive campaign against drug-smuggling networks at sea.

In a statement, the military said intelligence confirmed the boat was carrying illicit narcotics along a well-known trafficking corridor. “On December 4, at the direction of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” the statement said.

It added that “four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed.”

The latest strike comes amid mounting concern on Capitol Hill over the legality and scope of the administration’s maritime operations, which have intensified near Venezuela and across the Eastern Pacific. Lawmakers from both parties have demanded a full accounting of a September 2 strike, the first in what has become a months-long campaign in which more than 80 people have been killed.

Questions have centered on whether the US military acted within the law, particularly regarding rules of engagement and the reported follow-on attack against survivors of the September strike.

According to The Washington Post, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley allegedly ordered an additional strike to satisfy what he believed were Hegseth’s expectations — a claim that has drawn legal scrutiny.

However, Bradley, appearing on Thursday for classified briefings on Capitol Hill, rejected that allegations. He told lawmakers there was no kill them all order from Hegseth and said the strikes followed the military’s standard targeting procedures.

Still, lawmakers leading the House and Senate national security committees say they received contradictory accounts about what the survivors were doing when they were killed, further deepening concerns about transparency and oversight.

The Eastern Pacific and Caribbean have seen a surge in US military activity since Trump ordered a large naval deployment near Venezuela, including an aircraft carrier strike group. The buildup aims to pressure President Nicols Maduro while disrupting drug-smuggling operations linked to US-designated terrorist organizations.

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