US military launches deadly attack on 3 'drug boats' as 11 people killed

Four people died on the first vessel in the Eastern Pacific, with four on another in the Eastern Pacific and three on a third vessel in the Caribbean

American military officials say eleven more people have been killed in multiple strikes on three alleged drug-trafficking boats.

US Southern Command posted video on social media, detailing the hits. “Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” US Southern Command said. “No US military forces were harmed."

The Trump administration has carried out around 38 lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean in the past six months, but a number of legal experts claim that the strikes could be illegal.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the operation is aimed at removing "narco-terrorists from our hemisphere" and securing the US from "the drugs that are killing our people".

A command statement read: "Late on February 16, at the direction of the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.

"Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations.

"Eleven male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions, 4 on the first vessel in the Eastern Pacific, 4 on the second vessel in the Eastern Pacific, and 3 on the third vessel in the Caribbean. No U.S. military forces were harmed."

The measures signal a return to the hardline immigration policies that defined Trump’s previous administration. “This is a fight for our nation’s sovereignty and security,” he stated during the signing ceremony. “We will not allow drug cartels to exploit our borders or endanger American lives.”

Many critics have called into question the legality of these strikes including one advocacy group who claim that those on board the accused vessels are not afforded any "due process" before being downed with the ships they're travelling on.

In their analysis, the Washington Office on Latin America said: “Those being killed by US military strikes at sea are denied any due process whatsoever, their lives ended by missile attacks carried out at the orders of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, or the Southcom commander, with no basis under either US or international law.

"They are asserting and exercising an apparently unlimited license to kill people that the president deems to be terrorists."

Meanwhile, U.S. military forces have continued maritime operations in other areas of ocean, and over the weekend personnel boarded the Veronica III, a Panamanian-flagged tanker under U.S. sanctions.

The Pentagon said that the vessel, tracked to the Indian Ocean from the Caribbean, attempted to evade President Trump’s December quarantine of Venezuelan oil shipments.

Officials did not confirm whether the tanker was seized and provided no further details. Another ship, the Aquilla II, however, was after it was boarded in the same area last week. Its fate still remains undermined.