US military says two killed in strike on alleged drug boat

The US military says it has struck another boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean that it alleges was carrying drugs, killing two people on Thursday.

US Southern Command said the vessel was being operated by designated terrorist organisations and travelling on known narco-trafficking routes.

US forces have been targeting vessels they suspect of smuggling narcotics through the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September. At least 38 lethal strikes have been carried out in that time and 128 people have died.

The Trump administration has justified the operations as part of a non-international armed conflict meant to stem the flow of drugs from Latin America to the US.

The US Southern Command said in a statement on X that no US military forces were harmed in the operation.

Thursday's strike is the second this year. The pace of the strikes has notably ebbed since US forces in early January captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro - who has been accused by the Trump administration of working with drug trafficking groups.

At least 36 strikes took place over a four-month period late last year.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the campaign - which is officially named Operation Southern Spear - is aimed at removing "narco-terrorists from our hemisphere" and securing the US from "the drugs that are killing our people".

But some legal experts have said the strikes could be illegal and violate international law by targeting civilians, with no due process afforded to the suspects.

US officials have faced bipartisan scrutiny over a follow-up strike - or "double-tap" - on 2 September that targeted an alleged Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean Sea.

The families of two Trinidadian men killed in a 14 October strike have since filed a lawsuit against the American government, alleging the strike amounted to "lawless killings in cold blood; killings for sport and killings for theatre".