WASHINGTON (TNND) — The U.S. military on Monday conducted another strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people.
U.S. Southern Command announced the strike on social media, bringing the total number of known boat strikes to 30 and the number of people killed to at least 107 since September, according to the Trump administration.
“On Dec. 29, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters,” SOUTHCOM wrote on X. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
In a short video of the strike, a boat is seen traveling through the water before it is hit by a missile and explodes. SOUTHCOM said two male narco-terrorists were killed and no U.S. military forces were harmed.
Ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, President Donald Trump indicated the United States carried out a strike on a dock facility along Venezuela’s shoreline as part of his administration’s escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking with reporters, Trump referenced what he described as a “major explosion” at a location where boats accused of smuggling drugs were loaded.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said. “So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area and that is no longer around.”
Trump declined to say who carried out the strike or where it occurred, and did not explicitly confirm that it took place in Venezuela.
“I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was,” the president said. “But you know it was along the shore.”
In December, the Trump administration also launched a new tactic by seizing two sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela and pursuing a third. As a result, some sanctioned tankers began to divert away from the South American country.
Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. operations is to force him from power. Trump, for months, has suggested that he may conduct land strikes in Venezuela or possibly another country.
The Trump administration has faced scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign. It grew amid revelations that the first attack in early September involved a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.
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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.