US military carried out 20th strike on alleged drug boats, killing 4, official says

By Haley Britzky, CNN

(CNN) — The Pentagon conducted its 20th strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat earlier this week, a Defense Department official said Thursday.

“The strike occurred in the Caribbean and four narco-terrorists were killed, no survivors,” the official confirmed in a statement to CNN. Trump administration officials have acknowledged they do not necessarily know the identities of the individuals aboard the vessels before they are targeted.

The strike occurred on Monday, the official said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously announced two Sunday strikes, the 18th and 19th conducted by the US military, on two vessels each with three people aboard. Hegseth said in a post on X the following day that those strikes killed all six. The 20th strike was first reported by CBS News.

The attack brings the total number of people killed by the US military’s strikes on the alleged drug boats to 80. CNN has reported that the military is using a variety of fighter jets, drones, and gunships to carry out the strikes in the campaign officials say is meant to disrupt the flow of drugs into the US.

The Justice Department has told Congress the administration does not need its approval to carry out the strikes, which some experts have said could violate US and international law. The ongoing campaign has also begun to surface tensions with allies; the United Kingdom has stopped sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels to avoid being complicit in the strikes, CNN reported this week, which the UK believes are illegal. The president of Colombia also said this week that he had ordered his country to suspend intelligence sharing with the US until the attacks stop.

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