US says two people were killed in strike on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean, continuing a campaign denounced as illegal.
Published On 6 Feb 20266 Feb 2026
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The United States military has said that it killed two people in its latest attack on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees US military operations in Latin America, said on Thursday that “two narco-terrorists were killed during this action”.
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SOUTHCOM did not provide any evidence to support its claim that the vessel and the two victims were involved in drug trafficking.
US strikes on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean, which have killed 126 people in at least 34 attacks since the first recorded incident in September 2025, according to the watchdog group Airwars, have been widely denounced as illegal under international law.
The latest killings will bring that death toll to at least 128.
The Trump administration has defended the strikes by likening drug trafficking to an armed attack on the US and designating numerous criminal groups involved in the drug trade as “terrorist” organisations.
International legal scholars, rights workers and regional leaders have dismissed the US claims, warning that the strikes constitute extrajudicial killings and that no state of armed conflict exists to justify such operations. About 38 vessels have been attacked across 36 strikes carried out by US forces.
“There is no authority in international law for using military force on the high seas to kill suspected drug traffickers or narco gangs,” Ben Saul, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on protecting rights while countering terrorism, said previously.
SOUTHCOM last carried out an attack against a vessel on January 23, with at least two people killed.
Of the 126 people the military has confirmed killing, 116 were reportedly killed immediately, and 10 were believed dead after they could not be found following the strikes.
Family members of a Colombian man killed in one such strike have denied that he was involved with criminal activity, stating that he was a fisherman working to provide for his family.
The family of Alejandro Carranza has filed a legal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), but advocacy groups say that holding US officials accountable will be difficult.
Trump administration officials have also come under scrutiny for reports that the first such attack, which took place in September, included a follow-up strike that killed survivors who were clinging to the wreckage of the boat. The news outlet CNN has also reported that the vessel was en route to link up with vessels heading to Suriname, not the United States.