The United States “Department of War” carried out a “lethal” strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Pacific, killing two “terrorists”, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday.He also shared an unclassified video of the strike in a post on X.“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” he said.Tuesday night’s attack differed from the previous seven US strikes, which had focused on ships in the Caribbean. Hegseth said on social media that the latest strike killed two people, raising the total death toll to at least 34 since the attacks began last month.“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike,” he added.“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice,” he said.The operation signals an expansion of US military targets into South American waters and a new focus on Colombia, a key hub for cocaine trafficking from the world’s top producer. Hegseth also likened the Trump administration’s campaign to the US war on terror launched after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.
