Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike, ordered by President Trump, hit a vessel in international waters and resulted in no U.S. casualties.
- Hegseth labeled the dead as “narco‑terrorists” tied to a designated terrorist organization and vowed to pursue similar targets as the military did Al‑Qaeda.
- The attack is at least the 15th publicly acknowledged strike since early September, with official counts placing total deaths in the mid‑60s.
- The administration has not publicly released evidence or full legal opinions supporting the campaign, prompting bipartisan calls in Congress for the legal rationale and target lists.
- U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the killings as unlawful and urged a halt to the strikes, as the U.S. expands operations from the Caribbean to the eastern Pacific and deploys major naval assets to the region.