US forces have struck a second vessel alleged to be carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean, amid an escalating US campaign against seaborne drug smuggling.
Three people were killed and no US forces were harmed in the strike on Wednesday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said.
He added that there was “no process, no judicial order” and urged the US to instead co-operate with Colombia in the fight against drug trafficking.
It is a far greater drug trafficking sea route than the Caribbean so, in that sense, this strike appears more consistent with the US justification.
At least 37 people have been killed in the US strikes on alleged drug boats, including a recent strike on a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean.
As part of a growing US campaign against seaborne drug smuggling, US forces have hit a second ship in the Pacific Ocean that is suspected of transporting drugs.
According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the strike on Wednesday claimed three lives and did not injure any US forces. It happened just hours after the United States killed two people when it struck another boat in the Pacific.
According to the Colombian government, the United States’ strikes on ships near its coast were “like applying the death penalty in a territory that is not yours.”.
The majority of earlier attacks were in the Caribbean, but Wednesday’s strikes were the first in Pacific waters.
“Day after day, these strikes will happen. These are not just drug traffickers; they are narco-terrorists who are destroying our cities and causing death,” Hegseth wrote on X.
There was a video attached to the post that seems to show a boat catching fire after being hit by a US bomb.
After that, floating objects can be seen in the water, and then it looks like a second airstrike is aimed at them.
These strikes were “disproportionate and outside international law,” according to Mauricio Jaramillo, Colombia’s deputy foreign minister.
The people on board had “no possibility to defend themselves,” he said on the BBC’s Newsday program.
He went on to say that there was “no process, no judicial order” and urged the United States to work with Colombia to combat drug trafficking instead.
Although US President Donald Trump has stated that he has the legal right to keep bombing boats in foreign waters, he has threatened to take the matter to the US Congress if he decides to broaden the targets to include people on land.
His administration was “totally prepared” to extend anti-drug operations on land, he said, which would be a major step up.
It’s noteworthy that these strikes have spread into the Pacific Ocean. This strike seems more in line with the US justification because it is a much more important sea route for drug trafficking than the Caribbean.
It is still commonly held, nevertheless, that these strikes are intended to exert military pressure on President Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela in addition to combating drug trafficking.
He has been Donald Trump’s longtime opponent and has long accused him of being the head of a drug-trafficking organization, a charge he refutes.
US strikes on suspected drug boats have killed at least 37 people, including a recent attack on a semi-submersible ship in the Caribbean.
Two men who survived last week’s strike were sent back to Ecuador and Colombia.
Andrés Fernando Tufiño, the national, was later freed by Ecuador’s government, which claimed there was no proof of any wrongdoing. The other Colombian man is reportedly still in the hospital.
