CNN-The US military conducted a strike against a vessel in the Caribbean on Thursday, killing three people, according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” Hegseth said in a post on X, adding, “The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and was struck in international waters.”
Hegseth added that US forces were not harmed in the strike.
The US military has killed 70 people in 17 strikes that have destroyed 18 boats as part of a campaign that Washington says is aimed at curtailing the flow of drugs into the United States. There had been three survivors of those strikes, two of whom were briefly detained by the US Navy before being returned to their home countries. The other is presumed dead after a search by the Mexican Navy.
The Trump administration has told Congress that the US is now in an “armed conflict” against drug cartels beginning with its first strike on September 2, labeling those killed “unlawful combatants” and claiming the ability to engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.
Some members of Congress as well as human rights groups have questioned that finding and argued that potential drug traffickers should face prosecution, as had been the policy of interdiction carried out by the US before President Donald Trump took office.
The Trump administration has also not provided public evidence of the presence of narcotics on the boats struck, nor their affiliation with drug cartels.
The Trump administration has been aggressively trying to link Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to the drug trade while accumulating a huge military presence near Caracas, though Venezuela is not known to be a major source of cocaine for the US market.
Administration officials told lawmakers on Wednesday the US is not currently planning to launch strikes inside Venezuela and doesn’t have a legal justification that would support attacks against any land targets right now, CNN previously reported, according to sources familiar with the briefing conducted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth and an official from the White House’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Lawmakers were told during the classified session that the opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to justify strikes against suspected drug boats does not permit strikes inside Venezuela itself or any other territories, four sources said.
The “execute order” that launched the US military campaign against suspected drug boats that began in September also does not extend to land targets, the briefers said, according to the sources. The officials did not rule out any potential future actions, one of the sources said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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Article saying us army was not harm or injured but common no body attack all u so y would u all be injured. Another thing so many persons killing raping am more in America getting a sentence spend time in jail so y 70 plus hv to be kill for assume drugs the army hv enough power an tactics where they can aprehen theses people an make dem face d law I see those strikes as murder jus my 2 cents on d matter
BAM BOOM DEM!!!
I understand a lot of business are folding due to these strikes. i wonder if we would see any in Antigua.
U mean drugs business?
This war is no different than those right after, the ROARING 20’s pandemic into the prohibition days when the same Federal Government were hounding and chasing American gangsters like the Kennedy’s for the ILLEGAL DRUGS of the day ( booze, alcohol and moonshine).
To really get an understanding of the Big Pharma and Military Drug games from the poppy fields in Asia and Afghanistan to the coco fields in South America to the marijuana plantations in Mexico, please watch a true Documentary The Mena Connection.
Read about Oliver North and the contra affair.
This war on drugs, by bombing these defenseless boats ain’t gonna stop, ain’t gonna slow neither the sale nor use of Drugs in America.
All drug addiction and addictive drugs habits to addicts have their roots, start in big business; from the food industry to the medical industrial complexes.
Drugs can and will never leave the fabric of American culture. Never ever! Ever! Ever! Feel me! Opium to weed will always be apart of the HUEman breed! Yes indeed!
Any addict in America can go to a hospital, a church, a healthcare facility – in particular those set up to deal with mental health and get your fix, for kicks from the Statue of Liberty to Cali on Route 66. 🛣️
Jumbee Picknee aka Ras Smood
De’ole Dutty Peg🦶🏿Garrat_Bastard
Vere Edwards
Do you think that drug dealers would knowingly know that boats are been blown up when they take to the waters and they will be so stupid to try venturing out, you all better think again, is murder they murdering innocent people.
When I was a child my daddy and I use to watch the news on TV and see America doing shit in the middle east. At the time I recalled the Bible said something about trouble starting in the east and coming west so I asked daddy if that trouble would eventually come to us and he said yes. So the murderous americans are finally here. It took them a few decades, but they’re here. Dad’s not alive. He left us 15 years now.
I will keep reiterating the same point over and over..GB must make a decision as to who he stands with. Yes, there is a war against Venezuela leader, they want Maduro gone..yes they are killing people, all facts and reality right now, but GB has to make a decision for the people of Antigua.
Where is his allegiance, is it to Venezuela or the “big bad US”?
He has three more years left with trump in office,and if it is one thing we know(good or bad) the Donald is not backing down from anyone..so this Panzi little PM we have here better put on his big boy pants and get off the fence.
Choose a side Gatson, you don’t have too much time left.
Trust me on this one. Antigua is dead in the balance right now, dead.
And I will say it again..the US is your best choice, regardless of how this attack might mess with the fickle sensabilties of some.
@Islanman26, You don’t need choose a side secondly GB should not make a decision on his own it would on a whole with CARICOM. The risk of letting this be, is letting the same being done here when they don’t agree with the government, government action or refusal to make a deal with them eg. the invasion of Grenada which they murdered Maurice Bishop. Currently a lot of goods comes from American companies, the only possible thing Venezuela could/might be providing is oil at a very low rate compared to America so I can see you’re reasoning.
In the context of war, choosing a side is joining America and supporting them even allowing them to use Antigua as an outpost to let you know what choosing a side means that we will be open to attack. The Caribbean will either try to defuse the situation which is unlikely to happen or stay neutral except Trinidad most likely to support them. The US might be trying to pressure Guyana to side with them or allow them to use them for a land invasion as Trump open says he plans before he suddenly was very cautious about his statements with the media.
This is only a precursor to the plan of removing government that doesn’t align with America vision with this next is Cuba what will the Caribbean do without medical brigade and medical schools it provides for students. Marco Rubio a Cuban descendant from a wealthy family directly benefited under the Batista regime before it overthrown has a key focus on this region instead of foreign continents like they were before.
This one of the reasons people are “Anti-America” for it’s imperial acts such as this while it proclaim to be the beacon of freedom and democracy but only when they agree and get something out of it
@ YAC… Why ya na move to North Korea??
@Young C.
You can question the moral aptitude of the US all you want, the fact of the matter is that we live in the real world and many of us know it’s not a perfect one.. so we must find our best foot forward that will enhance our common goal to make the world a better place.
In spite of your limited litmus test as to what is right or wrong in america protection of its own people, something has to be done about Maduro, and no one had the guts to do it, at least not us from the Caribbean..So yes, GB has to show the US a hand of approval in this war against drugs, otherwise he will be seen by the US as an enablerler.
Remember, it’s not only boats from Venezuela the US is bombing, they are going after anyone they see fit.
So yes, GB must make a decisive statement(decision) about this entire thing,not just toe the line trying to appease everyone..
It will come back to bite Antigua and it’s relationship with the US
(Which China would love by the way).
@ Young Antiguan Communist
It”s good to see someone with a brain in the chat. Individual ignorance is allowed since it doesn’t spread. Collective ignorance has far reaching consequences and is unacceptable. Staying out and dealing solely with marco rubio is what the PM is doing. This protects our people and caribbean nationals from ICE in the states. Right now all dealings with the US are confidential. Cuba is a key piece to the Collective equation.
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