WASHINGTON: A US strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela on Tuesday (Oct 14) killed six suspected drug traffickers, President Donald Trump said, the latest such operation in recent weeks as the US builds up military forces in the region.
The strike is the most recent example of Trump’s efforts to use US military power in new, and often legally contentious, ways, from deploying active-duty US troops in Los Angeles to carrying out counter-terrorism strikes against drug trafficking suspects.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the strike had been carried out against a designated terrorist organisation, but he did not provide any details on which group.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks,” Trump said, without providing evidence.
A roughly 30-second video, which Trump posted, appeared to show a stationary vessel in a body of water being hit with a projectile before exploding.
The Pentagon recently disclosed to Congress that Trump has determined the United States is engaged in “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Some former military lawyers say the legal explanations given by the Trump administration for killing suspected drug traffickers at sea instead of apprehending them fail to satisfy requirements under the law of war.
