U.S. Southern Command confirmed Thursday that American forces executed their 22nd lethal strike on a suspected narco-vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing four individuals and raising the campaign’s confirmed death toll to at least 87 since President Trump authorised military action against drug-trafficking boats.
Dramatic footage released by the Pentagon shows a small go-fast boat cruising at high speed before being obliterated by a massive explosion, quickly engulfed in flames and thick black smoke—an operation carried out just hours after lawmakers began classified briefings into allegations surrounding the campaign’s very first strike on September 2.
The latest strike coincided with testimony from Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, commander of the operation, who appeared alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine before congressional committees investigating claims that Bradley ordered a second missile strike to eliminate survivors of the initial attack in order to satisfy Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reported demand for total elimination.
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Lawmakers emerged from viewing the classified September 2 video deeply divided: Republican Sen. Tom Cotton described survivors attempting to right a drug-laden vessel “to stay in the fight,” while senior Democrats delivered starkly different accounts. Rep. Jim Himes called the footage “one of the most troubling things” he had witnessed in public service, and Rep. Adam Smith described two shirtless individuals helplessly clinging to a capsized hull before being killed by follow-on missiles.
Legal scholars have warned that deliberately targeting survivors adrift at sea could constitute a grave breach of the laws of armed conflict. Despite Bradley’s insistence that no “kill them all” directive came from Secretary Hegseth, the escalating strikes and conflicting congressional reactions have intensified scrutiny over the Trump administration’s unprecedented use of wartime authorities against suspected civilian drug smugglers.
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