The US military has said that its latest strikes on alleged drug cartel boats in international waters killed eight alleged “narco terrorists”, bringing the death toll in Washington’s campaign against alleged Venezuelan drug mafia to at least 115 people since August 2025.
US Southern Command, which is responsible for American forces operating in Central and South America, announced that forces carried out two sets of consecutive strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a statement posted on X, it said “three narco-trafficking vessels travelling as a convoy” were targeted in international waters.
“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it stated.
The southern command also shared a video on X, showing the vessels travelling together at sea and then struck by a series of explosions.
While the exact location of these strikes was not yet known, it appears to be in the Caribbean or East Pacific waters.
Later, the military also said that it had notified the Coast Guard to “activate the search and rescue system”, without offering further details about the incidents.
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Hours after the initial statement, a second statement confirmed that two more vessels had been targeted on Wednesday, killing five people.
The US Administration has faced domestic and international criticism over its alleged targeting of the boats in the Pacific and Caribbean waters, with many international law experts and rights groups describing the actions as extrajudicial killings, and citing lack of evidence in striking the targeted boats involved in alleged drug trafficking.
Some critics have also questioned the credibility of statements coming from US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, calling on him to clarify how a small boat with limited fuel could travel from Venezuela to the United States with drugs on board.
Since September, the US military has carried out more than 30 such strikes on what it describes as boats used to smuggle drugs to the United States, without providing any concrete evidence that the targeted boats are involved in trafficking.
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