U.S. Conducts 22nd High-Seas Strike, Killing Four as Congress Reviews Survivor Video

Overview

• U.S. Southern Command said a Dec. 4 strike in the Eastern Pacific destroyed a boat in international waters and killed four men, carried out at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
• Officials say the operation is part of an ongoing effort against drug‑trafficking vessels that now totals 22 strikes since September with about 87 deaths and two rescues.
• Lawmakers were shown a classified video of the Sept. 2 mission that sources say depicts two unarmed survivors clinging to wreckage for about an hour before a second strike, prompting calls to release the footage.
• The White House denies that Hegseth ordered the follow‑on strike and attributes that decision to Admiral Frank M. Bradley, who told Congress he did not order executions and maintains the actions were lawful.
• Human‑rights groups and many legal experts argue the killings may be unlawful because Congress has not authorized hostilities against cartels and the laws of war bar attacks on shipwrecked or incapacitated persons.