THE NEW YORK TIMES – The U.S. military killed six people on Sunday in two more strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday.
The latest strikes raised the death toll in the campaign to 76 people in 19 attacks in the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea since early September.
In a post on social media, Mr. Hegseth cited “intelligence” and included two short video clips of the bombings of two separate boats that he said were traveling “along a known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific.”
“The Trump administration has justified the strikes by declaring drug cartels to be ‘unlawful combatants’ and said the U.S. is now in an ‘armed conflict’ with them.” – NPR
One of the boats appeared to be at a full stop with two visible passengers and possibly with an outboard motor raised out of the water.
The other was moving at high speed.
But in neither case did Mr. Hegseth provide evidence for his claim that the three men aboard each of the two boats were smuggling narcotics.
He said the attacks took place in international waters …
