US Strike Kills 3 on Drug Boat, Toll Hits 70

U.S. military forces conducted a lethal strike on Thursday against a boat suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea, killing three people aboard and raising the death toll from the Trump administration's campaign to at least 70, according to Pentagon officials.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the operation in a social media post, stating that the vessel was operating in international waters and affiliated with a designated terrorist organization. He released aerial footage showing the boat exploding into flames, with portions of the video obscured. "Three male narcoterrorists who were aboard the vessel were killed," Hegseth wrote, adding that no U.S. personnel were harmed. The strike, carried out at the direction of President Donald Trump, marked the 17th known attack on such vessels since early September, destroying at least 18 boats and semisubmersibles in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

The administration has justified the operations as part of a non-international armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels and criminal groups, which it has designated as terrorist organizations. Government sources indicated that a classified Justice Department...