Doha: The US military has confirmed that three individuals were killed in an airstrike targeting a vessel in the Caribbean Sea. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the ship was linked to a US-designated terrorist organization involved in drug trafficking and was operating in international waters along a known narcotics route.
According to Qatar News Agency, in a post on X, Hegseth stated that the operation was conducted on the orders of US President Donald Trump and followed intelligence tracking of the vessel prior to the strike.
The strike forms part of a broader campaign launched by the United States since early September 2025, targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Pentagon has reported that several individuals have been killed in these operations.
The campaign has sparked legal and diplomatic scrutiny, with US lawmakers pressing the Departments of Justice and Defense to clarify the legal basis for employing military assets instead of maritime law-enforcement agencies such as the US Coast Guard.
Washington maintains that the military strikes are part of a wider counter-narcotics strategy designed to disrupt the funding and logistical networks of transnational criminal organizations, which it views as direct threats to US national security.