The US military attacked another vessel in the Pacific on Wednesday that it claims was trafficking drugs, killing four people, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reported.
The attack occurred in international waters, Hegseth announced on the X Network, bringing the death toll of President Donald Trump’s controversial military anti-drug campaign to at least 61.
A video accompanying Hegseth’s post showed a vessel floating in the water before a large explosion and subsequent fire.
As with previous images released by the Trump administration, areas of the vessel are blurred, making it impossible to verify how many people were on board.
“This vessel, like all the others, was known to our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known drug trafficking route, and was transporting narcotics,” the Pentagon chief stated.
Washington has not yet released any evidence that its targets were trafficking narcotics or posed a threat to the country.
The recent attack comes a day after US airstrikes killed more than a dozen people on four ships in the eastern Pacific, in attacks that left one person as a survivor.
The US asked Mexico to rescue the survivor, but President Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday that search efforts were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the US military has been amassing an unusually large contingent of warships and aircraft in the Caribbean region.
Their presence has fueled speculation that the movements are aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Washington accuses of narco-terrorism.
