The U.S. military carried out an airstrike on Friday on a boat that officials had declared a drug trafficking vessel, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on social media.
The attack marks at least the fourth known U.S. military strike in the Caribbean Sea since the start of September. Officials said the boats were struck because of their affiliation with drug cartels and several gangs that earlier this year were designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S government.
Hegseth said in a post on X on Wednesday morning that, at the behest of President Donald Trump, his office “directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the [U.S. Southern Command] area of responsibility.”…