U.S. Kills 5 in Latest Boat Strike, Increasing Death Toll in Anti-Drug Campaign to 168

U.S. military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific killed five people on April 11, bringing the total death toll from the campaign to at least 168, as per CBS News. One person survived the latest strikes, prompting a search-and-rescue effort by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Southern Command said the operation targeted two vessels "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes," adding that "two male narco-terrorists were killed, and one narco-terrorist survived the first strike," while three others were killed in the second. The military did not provide evidence supporting its assessment that the boats were engaged in drug trafficking.

The April 11 strikes are part of an ongoing campaign launched in September targeting vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific. U.S. officials have framed the operations as necessary to combat narcotics trafficking, describing suspected smugglers as "unlawful combatants" and characterizing the effort as a "non-international armed conflict" with cartels, as CBS News explains.

The handling of survivors from the strikes has become a central point of scrutiny. In the latest incident, Southern Command said it notified the Coast Guard to search for the surviving individual, and the agency confirmed it was coordinating efforts. In previous cases, survivors have sometimes been rescued and repatriated, including two individuals recovered by a Navy helicopter in October.

Other operations have ended differently. In a January strike, the Coast Guard called off a search for multiple individuals who jumped overboard after their vessels were targeted about 400 nautical miles off the Mexico-Guatemala border.

The campaign has drawn criticism from lawmakers and human rights groups, particularly following a September operation in which two people who survived an initial strike were later killed in a follow-on attack. Democratic lawmakers who reviewed video of the incident questioned whether the second strike was justified, while the Defense Department and some Republicans said the individuals may still have posed a threat.

International organizations have also raised legal concerns. The United Nations' human rights office said back in October that the strikes and "their mounting human costs are unacceptable," urging the United States to halt the operations and investigate potential violations of international law.

Human Rights Watch similarly described the strikes as "unlawful extrajudicial killings" in September, arguing that lethal force is permissible only when strictly necessary to prevent an imminent threat.