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The US military has launched another attack on what it calls a narco-terrorist ship in the Caribbean, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, underscoring an expanding campaign against drug-linked militants.
The attack killed three suspected smugglers, Hegseth said, adding that it was carried out "on the orders of President Trump."
"The Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic attack on another drug trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Caribbean," Hegseth wrote in X.
He continued: “this ship, like any other, was known by our intelligence to be involved in illegal narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known drug trafficking route and was transporting narcotics.”
“These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home — and they will not succeed,” Hegseth added, vowing that the U.S. military will give them the same treatment it gave al Qaeda: “We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them down and kill them.”
Saturday's announcement marks the 15th known U.S. operation against suspected narco-terrorism groups in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September, part of what Hegseth has called an ongoing "naval offensive" against transnational cartels.
The US military has killed at least 64 people in these operations, according to defense officials familiar with the campaign.
President Donald Trump has defended the raids as a tough measure to cut off the flow of drugs into the United States, arguing that the cartels have evolved into transnational terrorist organizations and that America is engaged in an "armed conflict" with them under the same authority invoked after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The White House has resisted calls from lawmakers seeking more transparency on the legal reasoning behind the operations, including which groups are being targeted and how the force is being authorized.
Senate Democrats reiterated their calls for answers Friday, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Hegseth, asking the administration to disclose its legal justifications and the list of entities considered targeted under the president's directive.
"We also request that you provide us with all legal opinions regarding these strikes and a list of other groups or entities that the President has deemed targeted," the senators wrote.
The letter, signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and several senior Democrats, including Senators Jack Reed and Jeanne Shaheen, accuses the administration of selectively releasing contradictory information to some lawmakers while leaving others in the dark.
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