Latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 112 since early September.<\/p>\n
Published On 1 Jan 20261 Jan 2026<\/p>\n
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The United States military has killed at least five people in yet another attack on alleged drug smuggling boats, and ordered the country\u2019s coastguard to launch a search for survivors.<\/p>\n
The statement by US Southern Command on Wednesday did not reveal where the attacks occurred.<\/p>\n
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Previous attacks have been in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
A video posted by the Southern Command on social media shows the boats travelling in a close formation, and the military said they were in a convoy along known narco-trafficking routes and \u201chad transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes\u201d.<\/p>\n
The military did not provide evidence to back up the claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement,\u201d it said. \u201cThe remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
It later said it carried out another strike on the vessels and that two people were killed in the second strike.<\/p>\n
The military said it had notified the US Coast Guard to \u201cactivate the Search and Rescue system\u201d.<\/p>\n
The request for a rescue effort was notable because the US military drew heavy scrutiny after it killed the survivors of an attack in early September with a follow-up strike on their disabled boat.<\/p>\n
Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the military committed a crime, while the administration of US President Donald Trump and some Republican lawmakers say the follow-up strike was legal.<\/p>\n
The Reuters news agency, citing a US official, said eight people had abandoned their vessels and were being searched for in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
The US Coast Guard also told the agency it had deployed a C-130 aircraft to look for survivors and was working with vessels in the area.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time there have been survivors of a US strike under the Trump administration. In October, two survivors were repatriated to their home countries after surviving a US military strike.<\/p>\n
Later \u200bthat month, Mexican authorities launched a search and rescue effort after \u200canother US strike left a survivor. That individual was not found.<\/p>\n
The attacks on Wednesday bring the total number of known boat strikes to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 112 since early September, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and asserted that Washington is engaged in an \u201carmed conflict\u201d with drug cartels.<\/p>\n
His administration has also built up military forces in the region, including the deployment of more than 15,000 troops, as part of an escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US accuses of narco-terrorism.<\/p>\n
Caracas denies any involvement in drug trafficking and insists that Washington is seeking to overthrow Maduro to seize the country\u2019s oil reserves<\/a>, which are the world\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n