Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) on Sunday said if the U.S. military ordered a second strike targeting survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, as reported by The Washington Post on Friday, it would constitute an “illegal act.”

In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Turner stressed that “Congress does not have information that that had occurred,” noting the Armed Services committees in both the House and Senate have opened up probes into the matter.

“Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Turner said in the interview, noting the White House has not provided information supporting the Post reporting.

The Trump administration previously confirmed a Sept. 2 strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean killed 11 people they characterized as “narco-terrorists.”

The Post reported on Friday, however, that the initial strike left two survivors clinging to the wreckage. The news outlet reported that the special operations commander in charge of the military operation ordered a second attack to comply with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s earlier order to “kill everybody” aboard the vessel.

Hegseth fired back against the report later on Friday, calling it “fake news” and insisting that the U.S. military’s strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats, which have taken place in both the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, are “lawful.” 

Turner, the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a current member of the House Armed Services Committee, noted that some members of Congress have raised concerns about the legal rationale the Trump administration has provided to justify the attacks on the alleged drug boats in the first place. But Turner said the latest Post reporting is new information to Congress.

“There are very serious concerns in Congress about the attacks on the so-called drug boats down in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the legal justification that’s been provided,” Turner said.

“But this is completely outside of anything that has been discussed with Congress, and there is an ongoing investigation,” he continued.

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