U.S. Military Interdicts Narco-Trafficking Vessel in Eastern Pacific, Killing Three

U.S. military carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Saturday, killing three men aboard. U.S. Southern Command stated that intelligence confirmed the vessel was traveling along narco-trafficking routes and engaged in narco-trafficking operations.

U.S. military forces were harmed. Together the two strikes formed part of four attacks announced during the previous week. The series of strikes began in early September.

The death toll reached 205 after Saturday’s action, with some previously reported survivors later listed as missing. The Trump administration has declared that the United States is in armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, stating the groups are responsible for the flow of drugs into American communities.

U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay on Friday. The White House has not provided definitive evidence that the targeted vessels were involved in drug trafficking. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described the operations as unlawful extrajudicial killings.

In the first strike on September 2, the military conducted a follow-on strike that killed two survivors of the initial attack. Some lawmakers have questioned whether that action constituted a war crime. Only three people are known to have survived earlier strikes and been rescued.

Two were returned to Ecuador and Colombia; one was transferred to Costa Rican authorities. Families of two Trinidadian men killed in a Caribbean strike earlier this year have sued the Trump administration in federal court, arguing the killings lacked legal justification.