SRINAGAR: The US military killed four people in a strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean Sea, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said on Sunday, in the latest in a series of attacks on boats Washington says are involved in narcotics trafficking.
SOUTHCOM said Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere carried out a “lethal, kinetic strike” against a high-speed vessel travelling along established drug-trafficking routes in the Caribbean. The command said intelligence had confirmed the vessel was involved in narcotics trafficking and described those killed as “narco-terrorists”.
The command released video showing the vessel travelling through the water before being hit and engulfed in an explosion. It did not disclose details of the intelligence on which its assessment of the vessel was based.
The Trump administration has said vessels targeted in similar operations since September 2025 were carrying narcotics. US strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed more than 220 people, according to the account provided.
The campaign has drawn criticism from human rights organisations and legal experts, who have questioned the legality of the strikes and characterised them as extrajudicial killings.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and independent United Nations experts have described the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings.
Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, has said there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the attacks constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law.
The American Civil Liberties Union has also challenged the administration’s assertions about those targeted, describing them as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims”.
