The US navy says it has struck a ship “engaged in narco-trafficking operations”, killing three males.
The vessel “was transiting alongside identified narco-trafficking routes within the Jap Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations”, the US Southern Command mentioned on X.
The navy has not supplied proof that the boat or the lads on board had been concerned in drug trafficking.
Footage of the strike on Friday exhibits the small boat floating within the Pacific earlier than an explosion, inflicting it to burst into flames.
Flames are seen billowing into the sky after the strike. Pic: US Southern Command
President Donald Trump beforehand mentioned the US is in “armed battle” with cartels in Latin America.
US strikes on alleged drug boats have killed at the very least 148 individuals in at the very least 43 assaults within the Caribbean Sea and japanese Pacific Ocean since September, together with 11 people earlier this week.
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Mr Trump has justified the assaults as a vital escalation to stem the circulate of medication.
However critics have questioned the legality and effectiveness of the strikes, because the fentanyl behind many deadly overdoses is smuggled into the US through land from Mexico, the place it’s produced with chemical compounds imported from China and India.
In January, the US launched a direct navy assault on Venezuela, extraditing Nicolas Maduro and his spouse Cilia Flores, transporting them both to New York to face narcoterrorism and different fees, which each deny.
