The US military said it killed three men in a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean on Sunday.
The campaign has been controversial: the AFP news agency says at least 180 people have been killed since last year in related strikes.
US Southern Command said it “conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” killing what it described as “male narco-terrorists,” in a post on X. A video of the strike showed an explosion of a small boat on open water.
The command said the vessel was operating along known narcotics-smuggling routes and was engaged in trafficking activity when targeted, and that US forces suffered no casualties.
The Trump administration has described its actions as combating “narco-terrorists” in Latin America and has carried out repeated strikes on suspected smuggling boats since September, while building up the largest US military presence in the region in generations. President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels as it seeks to curb drug flows into the country.
Critics have questioned the legality of the operations, saying the administration has provided little evidence to support claims that those killed were “narco-terrorists.”
Edited by: Wesley Dockery