April 16 (UPI) — The U.S. military killed three people Wednesday in its fifth strike in five days targeting suspected drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific, marking U.S. Southern Command’s most concentrated stretch of publicly announced strikes in its monthslong anti-drug smuggling operation since the war in Iran began.
Fourteen people were confirmed killed during that five-day span, which included strikes on five boats, two on Saturday, killing a combined five people; one on Monday, killing two people; another on Tuesday, killing four people; and on Wednesday, when three people were killed.
A lone survivor from one of Saturday’s strikes remained missing late Wednesday after the U.S. Coast Guard told UPI that a search for the man was suspended Monday after no signs of the survivor or debris were found.
Like its previous announcements, SOUTHCOM offered little information about its most recent strike, which it made public in a statement late Wednesday.
It said Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted “a lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel in the eastern Pacific that it claimed was being operated by designated terrorist organizations.
SOUTHCOM said intelligence confirmed the vessel was traveling along “known narco-trafficking routes” and was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
No proof was provided.
A 20-second black-and-white clip of aerial footage of the attack shows a boat traveling across the water before it is struck by a projectile and bursts into flames.
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, President Donald Trump has led an aggressive anti-drug campaign that has included designating 10 drug cartels and gangs.
U.S. forces have been employed to attack boats suspected of transporting drugs since Sept. 2, with Trump arguing that the use of deadly military force is warranted by stating the United States is in “armed conflict” with the groups he’s designated.
With Wednesday’s strike, the U.S. military has destroyed at least 54 boats and killed at least 177 people in Trump’s anti-drug campaign, according to UPI’s analysis of SOUTHCOM figures.
The strikes have been conducted on a relatively consistent basis, with one notable gap in SOUTHCOM’s public strike announcements between Dec. 31 and Jan. 23. During that interval, U.S. forces carried out the Jan. 3 military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the detention of its authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro.
There were also only three publicly announced strikes in March, with no further strikes announced between March 25 and Saturday. The U.S. military has been waging war with Israel against Iran since Feb. 28, with a fragile two-week cease-fire in the conflict established April 7.
Trump’s use of the military in his anti-narcotic operation has been repeatedly condemned and its legality questioned by human rights groups, Democrats, critics and United Nations experts. They accuse his administration of violating international and maritime law over using the military for what are ostensibly law enforcement actions and for executing suspects without due process.
Democrats briefed earlier this year on the operation have also questioned the attacks’ legal and national security justifications, as well as their effectiveness, saying the boats were transporting cocaine, not fentanyl, and that much of the traffic was headed to Europe rather than the United States.
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