The US Department of War, following orders from President Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time), carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a ship that was said to be trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, confirmed the strike and said that three people were killed in the action. He called them “narco-terrorists.” Hegseth said that no US troops were hurt during the operation.
A video published by the Secretary of War on X (previously Twitter) shows a ship getting engulfed in flames through a camera’s reticle following the attack.
Narco-terrorism and more strikes
Hegseth said that a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) ran the ship that was targeted. He said that the U.S. received information that the ship was “involved in illegal drug smuggling, was traveling along a known drug trafficking route, and was carrying drugs.”
The Secretary of War promised that these kinds of things would keep happening as part of a larger plan to fight drugs:
“These strikes will keep happening every day. These people aren’t just drug dealers; they’re narco-terrorists who are bringing murder and ruin to our cities. These DTOs are the “Al Qaeda” of our hemisphere, and they will not get away with what they did. He commented on X, “We will find them and kill them until the threat to the American people is gone.”
Second Strike in Two Days
The strike on Wednesday was the second one in two days. Earlier, on Tuesday, Hegseth said that a similar hit on a boat that was thought to be carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific killed two individuals.
Hegseth wrote of the Tuesday attack: “Narco-terrorists who want to bring poison to our shores will find no safe place to hide in our hemisphere.” These cartels are fighting on our border and against our people, just like Al Qaeda did on our soil. “Justice will be the only thing that matters; there will be no refuge or forgiveness.”
The number of deaths has risen to 37.
Last month, US troops started these attacks on ships that were supposedly involved in drug trafficking. So far, they have done nine of these attacks.
The total number of victims killed in these targeted operations has now reached 37, thanks to the strike on Wednesday. The last two attacks happened in the eastern Pacific Ocean, although the prior seven happened in the Caribbean.