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USA army Confirmed Wednesday it hit three Boat Suspect drug smugglingresulting in three deaths and others reportedly jumping into the sea.
The operation was overseen by U.S. Southern Command, which did not disclose the exact location of the attack. Similar operations have previously occurred in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
A video posted by Southern Command on social media showed the ships moving in a tight formation. The military claimed the vessels were part of a convoy on a known drug trafficking route and claimed they “moved drugs between three vessels prior to the attack” but provided no evidence to substantiate this claim.
Three people died when the first ship was hit. Passengers from two other boats reportedly jumped into the water and kept their distance from the boats before being attacked. Southern Command said it immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to initiate search and rescue operations.
The attack happened on Tuesday. The Southern Command statement did not say whether those who jumped from the ship were rescued.
The call to the Coast Guard was notable because the U.S. military has come under intense scrutiny after U.S. forces killed survivors of an attack in early September and carried out follow-up attacks on their damaged ships. Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the military committed a crime, while the Trump administration and some Republican lawmakers said subsequent attacks were legal.
The latest attack brings the total number of known attacks on ships since early September to 33, with the death toll reaching at least 110 people, according to figures released by the Trump administration.
president Donald Trump Calling these attacks a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, it claimed that the United States was in an “armed conflict” with drug trafficking groups.
In addition to these attacks, the Trump administration has built up military capabilities in the region as part of escalating pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is accused in the United States of narco-terrorism.
Meanwhile, the CIA last week conducted a drone strike on a staging area believed to be used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to two people familiar with details of the operation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters.
It was the first known direct action on Venezuelan soil since the United States began launching air strikes in September, marking a significant escalation in the U.S. government’s pressure campaign against Maduro’s government.