{"id":218755,"date":"2025-10-17T02:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T02:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/218755\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T02:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T02:40:08","slug":"survivors-reported-after-latest-us-attack-on-alleged-drug-boat-in-caribbean-us-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/218755\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivors reported after latest US attack on alleged drug boat in Caribbean | US military"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US military<\/a> carried out a new strike on Thursday against a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean<\/a>, and in what is believed to be the first such case, there were survivors among the crew, a US official told Reuters.<\/p>\n

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not offer additional details about the incident, which has not been previously reported. But it raises new questions, including whether the US military<\/a> rendered aid to the survivors and whether they are now in US military custody.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon, which has labeled those it has targeted in the strikes as \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Prior to Thursday\u2019s operation, US military strikes against suspected drug boats off Venezuela<\/a> killed at least 27 people, raising alarms among some legal experts and Democratic lawmakers, who question whether they adhere to the laws of war.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration argues the US is already engaged in a war with narcoterrorist groups from Venezuela, making the strikes legitimate.<\/p>\n

Videos presented by the Trump administration of previous attacks showed vessels being completely destroyed, and there have been no prior accounts of survivors.<\/p>\n

The strikes come against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and about 6,500 troops as Donald Trump<\/a> escalates a standoff with the Venezuelan government.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the president disclosed he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, adding to speculation in Caracas that the US is attempting to topple the Venezuelan president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the United Nations\u2019 15-member security council, seen by Reuters, Venezuela\u2019s UN ambassador, Samuel Moncada, asked for a UN determination that the US strikes off its coast are illegal and issue a statement backing Venezuela\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Less than a week ago, the Pentagon announced its counter-narcotics operations in the region would not be led by the Miami-based southern command, which oversees US military activities in Latin America.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Pentagon said a taskforce was being created that would be led by the II Marine Expeditionary Force, a unit capable of rapid overseas operations that is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

That decision came as a surprise to US military-watchers, since a combatant command like the southern command would normally lead any high-profile operations.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced that the admiral who leads the southern command will step down<\/a> at the end of this year, two years ahead of schedule, in a surprise move.<\/p>\n

The top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, Jack Reed, called Adm Alvin Holsey\u2019s unexpected resignation troubling given mounting fears of a potential US confrontation with Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdmiral Holsey\u2019s resignation only deepens my concern that this administration is ignoring the hard-earned lessons of previous US military campaigns and the advice of our most experienced warfighters,\u201d Reed said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US military carried out a new strike on Thursday against a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-218755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}