The U.S. military on Wednesday launched its ninth strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing three people in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media Wednesday.
That followed another strike on Tuesday night, also in the eastern Pacific, that killed two people, according to Hegseth.
Both attacks were departures from the seven previous U.S. strikes that targeted vessels in the Caribbean. They bring the death toll for all the attacks, which began last month, to at least 37.
The strikes represent an expansion of the U.S. military’s targeting area and a shift to the waters off South America, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.
Hegseth’s social media posts also drew a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown.
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“Just as al-Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Hegseth said, adding “there will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”
Later Wednesday, he referred to the alleged drug-runners as “the ‘al-Qaeda’ of our hemisphere.”
Trump hints at possible land strikes
U.S. President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and proclaiming the criminal organizations unlawful combatants, relying on the same legal authority used by U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration for the war on terrorism.
Trump has said similar strikes could eventually come on land.
“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”
Lawmakers from both political parties have expressed concerns about Trump ordering the military actions without receiving authorization from Congress or providing many details.
Appearing alongside Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended such strikes, saying, “If people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop sending drugs to the United States.”