Trump says six killed in US raid on another boat allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela | Trump administration
Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States struck another small boat it accuses of carrying drugs in the waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people on board.
“The strike was carried out in international waters, and six drug terrorists on board the ship were killed in the strike,” Trump said. He said In a statement on the social media platform Truth Social. “No American forces were harmed.“
Trump added that “intelligence confirmed that the ship was trafficking drugs” and was “linked to illegal drug-related terrorist networks.” Trump said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike Tuesday morning and also shared video footage of the strike, as he has done with previous strikes.
This marks the fifth fatal US strike in the Caribbean, according to the center news agencyIt comes just weeks after Trump administration officials said the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.
An internal Trump administration memo obtained by The New York Times earlier this month reportedly said that Trump considered cartels involved in drug trafficking “non-state armed groups” whose actions constitute “an armed attack against the United States.”
The United States has defended the boat strikes as aimed at combating “narco-terrorist” members of Tren de Aragua, which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. The White House said the military action is a necessary escalation to disrupt the flow of drugs into the United States.
However, some lawmakers and human rights groups have questioned the legitimacy of the attacks. In September, experts at the United Nations He condemned the American strikes On small boats believed to be trafficking drugs as a means of extrajudicial executions.
“International law does not allow governments to kill alleged drug traffickers,” the experts said. “Criminal activities must be disrupted, investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the rule of law, including through international cooperation.”
Last week, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said there were “indications” that one of the boats recently targeted was Colombian “and had Colombians on board.”
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The White House quickly responded to Petro’s claims, Demanding To retract his statement, which the White House described as “baseless and reprehensible.”
Also last week, an effort in the US Senate to block further US strikes on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela without congressional approval failed, after almost all Republicans and Democratic Senator John Fetterman voted against the measure.