US strikes boat off Venezuela coast, killing four, says Defense Secretary
On Friday morning, the US military conducted another strike on a boat operating in the Caribbean, which officials identified as a "narco-trafficking vessel." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced in a social media post that the strike resulted in the deaths of all four individuals on board.
The attack marks at least the fourth known US military strike in the Caribbean since the beginning of September, all of which have targeted boats the administration claims are “affiliated” with drug cartels that the US has designated as terrorist organizations in recent months, News.Az reports citing CNN.
Hegseth posted on X on Friday that at President Trump’s order, he directed the “lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”
The attack took place in international waters just off Venezuela’s coast, Hegseth wrote — a move that could further inflame tensions between the US and the Venezuelan regime. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on Tuesday that he is preparing to declare a state of emergency to protect his country in the event of an attack by the US military.
The administration has previously argued that other boats it has struck were also headed to the US, necessitating urgent military action. However, at least one boat struck by the US military last month had turned around before it was hit, CNN has reported, indicating it did not pose an imminent threat to the US or US forces. Following the US’ first such strike on September 2, Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially said that the boat had likely been headed toward Trinidad or elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Legal experts and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have questioned the legality of the strikes. In a letter to Congress this week, the Pentagon said Trump had determined that the US is in an “armed conflict” with the drug cartels his administration has designated as terrorist organizations, and that smugglers for the cartels are “unlawful combatants,” CNN has reported.
Describing the US military strikes as part of an armed conflict suggests that the attacks are part of a longer-term campaign and not just one-off strikes in self-defense. In his post on X on Friday, Hegseth said “these strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!”
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