The US has launched its eighth strike against an alleged drug vessel – this time in the Pacific.
The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the “lethal kinetic” strike on social media.
In a video shared by Mr Hegseth, a small boat carrying brown packages explodes after being struck.
According to the US war secretary, the action killed two “narco-terrorists”, taking the death toll from all the strikes to at least 34 people.
“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organisation and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” said Mr Hegseth.
“There were two narco-terrorists aboard during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed, and no US forces were harmed.”
Mr Hegseth likened the alleged drug traffickers to the group behind the September 11 attacks, Islamist terror organisation Al Qaeda.
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“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Mr Hegseth said. “There will be no refuge or forgiveness – only justice.”
The seven previous US strikes had all targeted vessels in the Caribbean.
Amid a US military build up in the region and anxiety that Mr Trump may order military action against Venezuela, which the US president accuses of narcoterrorism, President Nicolas Maduro.has denied any connection to drug smuggling and said the boat strikes were a pretext for regime change.
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