WASHINGTON – The US military struck an alleged in the eastern Pacific on Monday, killing two people aboard, the US Southern Command said.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the command said on social platform X. “Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed.”
The US military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs.
One day earlier, US forces sank two boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing five people and leaving one survivor, according to the command.
Since early September last year, the US military has conducted nearly 50 known airstrikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats, killing at least 170 people aboard.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held the first hearing of its kind in Guatemala City last month on the legality of US boat strikes in the Caribbean and the harm they are causing to communities across Latin America, according to a news release from the American Civil Liberties Union, a major American civil rights group.