The US military on Friday said it struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people and leaving one survivor in the latest attack on boats suspected of transporting narcotics. This brings the death toll from strikes on such vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific to more than 190 people since September.
A video posted by the US Southern Command shows the vessel traveling through the water being hit by what appears to be a missile. The screen momentarily goes black and then shows the boat engulfed in flames.
The Southern Command said “the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes” and “was engaged in narco-trafficking operations”. It said the two people killed were men and that it notified the US Coast Guard to start a search and rescue for the sole survivor. No further details were divulged.
The military has attacked multiple alleged drug-running boats in the eastern Pacific in recent weeks, including a strike on Tuesday that killed three people. According to a tally by the Intercept, there have now been 58 such boat strikes since September amounting to a death toll of 193 people with four survivors.
The legality of these boat strikes is under scrutiny, with legal experts saying the attacks amount to unlawful extrajudicial killings by the Pentagon with a complete lack of accountability. Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have condemned the strikes.
The Pentagon has framed its operations in the region as a campaign against “narco-terrorism”, but has provided scant evidence of coordinated drug-smuggling rings.
