Trump says will ‘look into’ supposed follow-on strike on alleged drug boat

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said on Nov 30 he would look into reports that the US military conducted a follow-up strike on a boat in the Caribbean that it believed to be ferrying drugs, killing survivors of an initial missile attack.

Mr Trump also said he “wouldn’t have wanted” a second strike on the vessel from the incident on Sept 2
– the first publicised operation in a series of attacks in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that Washington says are aimed at combatting the drug trade.

In that incident, the US military saw two survivors of an initial strike clinging to the burning vessel, and proceeded to strike the boat again, The Washington Post reported.

Prior to the operation, the troops had been given a directive from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill everyone on board, The Washington Post and CNN both reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the operation.

“The order was to kill everybody,” one of the sources told the Post.

Mr Trump defended Mr Hegseth, telling reporters aboard Air Force One on Nov 30: “I’m going to find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”

When asked if he would have wanted a second attempt to kill the survivors, Mr Trump said: “We’ll look into it, but no, I wouldn’t have wanted that – not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal.”

Mr Hegseth has dismissed the reports as “fake news”.

Since September, US air strikes have targeted alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 83 people.

Mr Trump’s administration has offered no concrete evidence to back up the allegations behind its campaign, and numerous experts have questioned the legality of the operations.

UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk has urged Washington to investigate the strikes’ legality, saying there was “strong evidence” they constitute “extrajudicial” killings.

The top Republican and Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Mr Mike Rogers and Mr Adam Smith, said in a statement on Nov 29 that they were “taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question”.

Their Senate counterparts issued a similar statement late on Nov 28.

Late on Nov 30, Mr Hegseth posted a mock-up cover of a book featuring the children’s character Franklin the Turtle, entitled Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.

The turtle, wearing a US military vest, is shooting from a helicopter at boats crewed with armed men.

“For your Christmas wish list,” he wrote on his personal account on X. AFP