U.S. Has Now Killed Almost 100 People In Strikes Against Alleged Drug Boats In The Caribbean And Eastern Pacific

The U.S. has now killed almost 100 people across the tens of strikes conducted against alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific following the latest attack.

Concretely, U.S. forces have now killed at least 99 people after a strike on Wednesday killed four people aboard a boat in the eastern Pacific.

The Southern Command confirmed the operation saying that "at the direction of U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters."

"Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. A total of four male narco-terrorists were killed, and no U.S. military forces were harmed," the statement added. Overall, the U.S. has conducted 26 strikes since Operation Southern Spear began in September.

The Trump administration has told Congress it considers itself to be in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels and has labeled those killed as "unlawful combatants," citing a classified Justice Department finding that it says permits lethal action without judicial review, as CNN explains.

The operation has drawn growing criticism from legal experts and lawmakers, particularly over a follow-up strike on Sept. 2 that killed two survivors of an initial attack, with several experts have said that second strike could constitute an extrajudicial killing under international law. Hegseth has rejected declassifying the footage and won't release it publicly.

Speaking to reporters after he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the full Senate on the Trump administration's counternarcotics operations in the Caribbean, Hegseth said the video would be made available Wednesday to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, along with commentary from the Navy admiral who authorized the strike.

He did however stress the confidential nature of the videos adding that "of course we're not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public." Hegseth also claimed to be "proud of what we're doing, able to lay it out very directly."