The US military said it carried out another strike today on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the third attack this week and pushing the overall death toll above 200 people.
US Southern Command announced the latest strike in the monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and operated by a designated terrorist organisation. It provided no evidence.
While the military's social media announcements always include video of the attacks, this appears to be the first with the footage in colour instead of black and white. The video shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it's hit and engulfed in a fireball. It cuts to what could be the boat in flames, surrounded by a large plume of parcels or some other objects spread around it in the water.
The attack puts the death toll at 202 people from the series of US strikes that began in early September, with two other attacks announced Tuesday (local time) and Wednesday (local time). The Trump administration has declared that the US is at armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the flow of drugs into American communities.
US Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top US commander in Latin America, who on today also met with Cuban military leaders near the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay.
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