President Donald Trump stated Friday he ordered one other strike towards a ship in worldwide waters within the Caribbean that he stated was “trafficking illicit narcotics.”
“On my orders, the Secretary of Struggle ordered a deadly kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Group conducting narcotrafficking within the US SOUTHCOM space of duty,” Trump stated in a put up on his social media platform.
It was the third such strike concentrating on alleged drug traffickers — and the second one this week.
U.S. Southern Command’s space of duty consists of South America and the Caribbean Sea.
Trump’s put up didn’t say when the most recent strike was carried out.
(FILES) This display seize from a video posted by US President Donald Trump on his Fact Social account on September 15, 2025, reveals what President Trump says is US Navy forces conducting a strike on a ship carrying alleged drug traffickers within the Caribbean Sea within the SOUTHCOM space of duty on Monday, September 15, 2025. Venezuela stated on September 19, 2025, it could search a United Nations probe of US strikes that killed 14 alleged drug traffickers on a minimum of two boats in worldwide waters off its coast.
Handout/US President Donald Trump’s TRUTH SOCIAL by way of Getty
Based on Trump, the strike killed three males, who he referred to as “narcoterrorists.”
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a video on social media exhibiting a rushing craft transferring rapidly by the water earlier than being struck by an obvious missile after which engulfed in a big burst of flame.
The Pentagon referred inquiries to the White Home, which didn’t instantly reply.
Trump stated intelligence indicated the vessel was trafficking medicine and was “transiting alongside a identified narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison People.”
The strike earlier this week also killed three people, Trump stated.
Up to now, the U.S. authorities has relied on the U.S. Coast Guard and regulation enforcement personnel to board vessels suspected of carrying medicine for inspection.
However earlier this 12 months, Trump insisted that drug cartels must be in the identical authorized class as international terrorist organizations, paving the way in which for the sort of deadly navy pressure reserved below the regulation to forestall an imminent kinetic assault towards People.
Critics of his administration have questioned this authorized justification and whether or not it quantities to a conflict crime.
