In its post announcing the strike on a convoy of three boats carried out on 30 December, US Southern Command said that there had been a number of survivors, without specifying how many.
It said that “the remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels”.
It added that the US Coast Guard had been “immediately notified” to search for the survivors.
Reuters news agency reports that it was told by a US official who asked to remain anonymous that eight survivors were being searched for.
It is not yet clear if any of them have been found.
The US has provided no evidence that the boats it has targeted are carrying drugs but in its most recent post, Southern Command again insisted that “intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and engaged in narco-trafficking”.