The US military said on Saturday it had carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific killing three men, the second strike in as many days.
US Southern Command said in a post on X that intelligence had confirmed that the vessel was transiting along "narco-trafficking" routes in the eastern Pacific, engaged in "narco-trafficking" operations.
"Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed," it said.
This is the latest such incident over the last few months.
Since early September, the US military under Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has targeted alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, destroying at least 26 vessels and killing at least 95 people.
The US administration has labeled those killed as "unlawful combatants" and said it can legally engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.
US authorities have not provided specific evidence that the boats it has targeted were ferrying drugs.
Experts and human rights advocates, both in the US and globally, have raised questions about their legality, with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International saying the strikes amount to “unlawful extrajudicial killings”.
US President Donald Trump has earlier said the goal is combating narco-trafficking, while Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he suspects it is a pretext for leadership change in Caracas.
