The U.S. military says it carried out another strike Monday, killing two people on a boat accused of drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific.
The campaign against alleged drug vessels in Latin American waters, which has now persisted for over seven months, continues despite the U.S. military’s six-week focus on the Iran war.
It was the second consecutive day the U.S. Southern Command reported a strike.
A Sunday announcement detailed two boats destroyed Saturday in the eastern Pacific, killing five, with one survivor whose fate remains unclear.
Monday’s incident brings the death toll from the strikes to at least 170 since the effort began in early September.
This predates the January U.S. raid that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges in New York and has pleaded not guilty.
U.S. Southern Command repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs.
It posted a video on X showing a small boat floating in the water before a huge blast hit it and smoke was seen pouring from the vessel.
President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives.
But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
Trump on Monday appeared to reference the tactic of boat strikes in Latin America while issuing new threats against Tehran as a blockade of Iranian ports took effect.
“Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
