US kills 14 in strikes on Pacific drug boats

WASHINGTON:

US forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Washington's anti-narcotics campaign to at least 57.

The United States began carrying out the strikes — which experts say are illegal — in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific. In three strikes carried out Monday in international waters, 14 "narco-terrorists" were killed and one survived, Hegseth said in a post on X.

This was the deadliest single-day toll so far in the US campaign. "The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics," he said.

The Pentagon chief's post included video of the strikes, the first of which targeted two stationary boats that appeared to be moored together, and the other two on vessels that were speeding across open water.