‘Three narco-terrorists’ aboard a vessel killed in ‘lethal’ strike, says US Southern Command

WASHINGTON: Three male ‘narco-terrorists’ aboard a vessel operated allegedly by a ‘Designated Terrorist Organisation’ were killed in a ‘lethal kinetic strike’, the US Southern Command said. The vessel was stuck in International waters.

In a post on X, the US Southern Command said, “On Nov. 15, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed. The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific and was struck in international waters”.

On Nov. 15, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,… pic.twitter.com/iM1PhIsroj

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) November 16, 2025

As per a report by the New York Times on November 13, US President Donald Trump’s military campaign has killed at least 80 people in the waters off Central and South America. The strikes have been widely criticized as illegal.

Since September, Trump authorized a series of military strikes on boats he has said were being used to smuggle drugs from South America, summarily killing at least 80 people. The latest strike, in the Caribbean on Wednesday, killed four people, according to Pentagon officials.

The military campaign has raised regional tensions and represents a major shift in US policy, which long treated maritime drug smuggling as a law enforcement matter. A broad range of experts in laws governing the use of armed force have said the strikes are illegal, and the administration has offered tenuous legal rationales while releasing little evidence to support its smuggling allegations.

On November 12, the US military killed four people accused by the Trump administration of trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean, Pentagon officials said, raising the number of known boat strikes to 20. The strike came a day after the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, arrived in the Caribbean, adding to the United States’ capability to strike boats or hit targets on land in Venezuela.

The arrival of the Ford and its three missile-firing Navy destroyers brought the total number of American military personnel in the region to more than 15,000, the largest US buildup there in decades, as per New York Times. (ANI)