Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Saturday that the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike on a vessel operated by a drug trafficking organization in the Caribbean, killing three men aboard.
The operation, directed by President Donald Trump and carried out in international waters, targeted a vessel known to be carrying narcotics along a smuggling route, with no U.S. forces harmed, Hegseth said in an X post.
The War Secretary shared a video said to show the moment of the deadly strike on the boat.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the location or the date when the video was filmed. Upon checking this footage, no old results were found.
"Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Caribbean," Hegseth said on X. "This vessel—like EVERY OTHER—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home—and they will not succeed. The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them."
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