WASHINGTON — The Pentagon carried out Friday another lethal strike on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said was a boat carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela. Four individuals were killed.
Hegseth said on X that the strike occurred Friday morning on a “narco-trafficking vessel” that U.S. intelligence indicated was affiliated with a designated terrorist organization.
“Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation,” Hegseth wrote.
The strike is the fourth known U.S. attack against what the Trump administration says are narco-terrorists smuggling drugs. With this attack, American forces have now killed 21 individuals in four vessels in international waters over the last several weeks, according to administration officials.
Democratic lawmakers, as well as some Republicans, say the Trump administration has not provided a proper legal rationale for the strikes.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemned the strike in a statement.
“Every American should be alarmed that the President believes he can wage secret wars against anyone he chooses," said Reed. "Congress alone has the constitutional power to decide when America goes to war. The President cannot launch military campaigns and invent legal cover after the fact."
Hegseth said that the strike on Friday morning occurred in international waters near Venezuela while the boat was transporting “substantial amounts of narcotics — headed to America to poison our people."
President Donald Trump posted a message of his own regarding the attack.
“A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory,” Trump wrote, without describing how he knew what type of drugs were on the vessel.
A video posted by Hegseth and Trump that was marked “unclassified” showed a small boat bouncing over a blue sea before it was struck and destroyed. It was not clear if a drone, jet fighter or missile was used.
The U.S. has deployed multiple ships and about 4,000 troops, mostly sailors, to the waters of U.S. Southern Command in recent months. That includes destroyers, a Marine unit and other vessels.
“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth wrote on Friday. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!”
NBC News reported last week that U.S. officials were considering striking targets inside Venezuela. Members of Congress, including some GOP lawmakers, argue that the lack of legal rationale for the strikes could potentially put the individual troops who carry out the strikes in legal peril.
On Thursday, NBC News reported that the administration had provided Congress with a notice that President Trump has “determined” the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and that members of those organizations can be targeted as unlawful combatants.
Previous administrations have used the same designation to target leaders and members of designated foreign terrorist organizations, like Al Qaeda or Islamic State.
“The President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” the notice said.
On Thursday, Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, defended the strikes in a statement.
“As we have said many times, the President acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores,” Kelly said. “And he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans.”
