WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said Sunday it destroyed two boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Saturday, killing five people and leaving one survivor. The strikes are part of an expanding campaign the Trump administration says targets “narcoterrorists” in Latin America.
U.S. Southern Command said the attacks occurred along known trafficking routes but did not provide evidence that the vessels were carrying drugs. Videos posted on X showed small boats moving across the water before each was struck and engulfed in a bright explosion. Southern Command also said it alerted the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search-and-rescue efforts; the Coast Guard confirmed it was coordinating the search and said it would provide updates.
Saturday’s deaths raise to at least 168 the number of people killed in U.S. military boat strikes in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean since the administration began the campaign in early September. President Donald Trump has characterized the campaign as part of an “armed conflict” with cartels and has defended the strikes as necessary to reduce drug flows and overdose deaths in the United States. The administration, however, has offered little public evidence that those killed were the “narcoterrorists” it describes.
Critics have challenged the legality and effectiveness of the strikes, noting that much of the fentanyl fueling U.S. overdoses is trafficked overland from Mexico and produced there with precursor chemicals from China and India. The operations have continued even as U.S. forces have also been focused on the Middle East, where the U.S. was recently engaged in a weeks-long confrontation with Iran.
On Sunday, Trump said the U.S. Navy would begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz after ceasefire talks with Iran in Pakistan ended without agreement. He said the move is meant to reduce Iran’s leverage in the conflict; U.S. Central Command said the blockade would involve Iranian ports.