US : In Operation Southern Spear, the kills eight people and attacks three vessels in the Pacific Ocean
US : Southern Command on Tuesday, the US military killed eight suspected narco-terrorists by conducting deadly attacks on three boats run by designated terrorist groups in international seas.
The attacks were carried on Monday as part of Operation Southern Spear, which was directed by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, according to a post from US Southern Command. Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted the mission in the Eastern Pacific.
According to US Southern Command, intelligence verified that the three ships were actively involved in narco-trafficking and were traveling along well-known routes used by drug traffickers.
“A total of eight male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions, three in the first vessel, two in the second and three in the third,” SOUTHCOM said in a post to X.
The most recent attacks raise the total number of victims in Operation Southern Spear, an operation to stop drug trafficking in the area that was started by US President Donald Trump’s administration. Since the start of the operation, attacks targeting suspected drug vessels have killed at least 95 individuals, according to prior US military claims.
According to CNN, which cited a second statement from the US Southern Command, US Marines killed four persons on board another suspected drug vessel earlier this month when they hit it in the Eastern Pacific on December 4.
Legal experts and politicians have questioned the advertising. Congress has been notified by the Trump administration that the United States and drug cartels are engaged in a “armed conflict” that started on September 2. According to previous CNN reporting, US Marines launched a second assault on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean that day after the first attack failed to kill every person on board.
The legitimacy of the strikes has been questioned by several Democratic politicians and legal experts, who contend that further assaults would qualify as war crimes. Labeling those murdered as “unlawful combatants” and pointing to a Justice Department decision that is secret and permits deadly attacks without court review, the administration has justified its activities.
The military operation is a component of larger US pressure on Venezuela, which also includes repeated threats to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the deployment of thousands of soldiers and a carrier strike group to the Caribbean.
A day after US officials apprehended a sanctioned tanker off the coast of Venezuela, the US also imposed new sanctions last week on shipping firms and ships allegedly involved in the transportation of Venezuelan oil, according to CNN.