The U.S. launched a seventh strike on a suspected drug trafficking boat, killing three individuals, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced Sunday.
The U.S. on Friday performed a “deadly kinetic strike” on a vessel that was allegedly affiliated with Colombian group Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) because it operated in worldwide waters in U.S. Southern Command, Hegseth stated in a put up shared to social media platform X. ELN was designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Division in 1997.
There have been three males on board the vessel in the course of the strike, and all three have been killed, Hegseth stated.
Friday’s lethal strike occurred someday after two individuals survived a U.S. strike on a semi-submersible suspected of trafficking medicine. Two others have been killed in that strike.
The U.S. performed a search and rescue mission for the 2 survivors and held them on a U.S. Navy ship, Reuters reported. President Donald Trump introduced Saturday that the 2 survivors can be returned to Colombia and Ecuador, their international locations of origin. The State Division didn’t instantly reply to a USNI Information request for extra data on the turnover.
There have been seven publicly disclosed strikes since Sept. 2, shortly after the U.S. elevated the variety of Navy ships working within the Caribbean for what the Trump administration described as an anti-drug trafficking mission. There are at present eight Navy ships working within the area, together with the ships making up the Iwo Jima Amphibious Prepared Group and three independently deployed destroyers, based on the USNI Information Fleet and Marine Tracker.
The strikes have killed not less than 30 individuals. Thursday’s strike is the one recognized strike to go away survivors.
The vast majority of the strikes have taken out Venezuelan boats believed to be trafficking medicine, however Friday’s strike on suspected members of Colombia’s ELN expands the targets. Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated one of many strikes was on a Colombian boat, killing the Colombian residents aboard, based on the BBC.
The administration has stated the strikes are navy self-defense operations below U.S. Title 10 however has not supplied further authorized justification. Lawmakers on each side of the aisle have raised considerations over the legality of the strikes.
The administration advised lawmakers it views the people allegedly trafficking medicine as “illegal combatants,” based on The New York Occasions. The newspaper cited a memo to Congress that stated the administration sees the drug cartels as partaking in an “armed assault in opposition to the US.”
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