US kills five in attack on suspected drug boats, searches for survivors | News

The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat collisions to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 112 since the start of September.

The US military has killed at least five people in a new attack on suspected drug trafficking boats and ordered the country’s coast guard to launch a search for survivors.

The statement released Wednesday by the U.S. Southern Command did not reveal where the attacks took place.

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Previous attacks took place in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

A video posted by Southern Command on social media shows the boats traveling in close formation, and the military said they were part of a convoy along known drug trafficking routes and “had transferred narcotics between the three ships before the strikes.”

The military has not provided any evidence to support this claim.

“Three narcoterrorists on board the first ship were killed during the first engagement,” the statement said. “The remaining narcoterrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before subsequent fighting sank their respective vessels,” the statement added.

He later said he carried out another strike on the ships and that two people were killed in the second strike.

The military said it had asked the U.S. Coast Guard to “activate the search and rescue system.”

The call for rescue efforts was notable as the U.S. military came under close scrutiny after killing survivors of an attack in early September by launching another strike on their disabled boat.

Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts have said the military committed a crime, while U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and some Republican lawmakers have said the follow-up strike was legal.

The Reuters news agency, citing a U.S. official, said eight people had abandoned their ships and were wanted in the Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. Coast Guard also told the agency it had deployed a C-130 aircraft to search for survivors and was working with vessels in the area.

This is not the first time there have been survivors of a US strike under the Trump administration. In October, two survivors were repatriated to their home countries after surviving a U.S. military strike.

Later that month, Mexican authorities launched a search and rescue operation after another U.S. strike left one survivor. This individual has not been found.

Wednesday’s attacks bring the total number of known boat collisions to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 112 since the beginning of September, according to figures announced by the Trump administration.

Trump justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and claimed that Washington was engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

His administration has also increased its military forces in the region, including deploying more than 15,000 troops, as part of a growing pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the United States accuses of narcoterrorism.

Caracas denies any involvement in drug trafficking and insists Washington is seeking to overthrow Maduro to seize power. the country’s oil reserveswhich are the largest in the world.

Trump said Monday “the The United States ‘hit’ an area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs, this is the first time that Washington has carried out land operations in Venezuela.

Officials said the ground strike was not carried out by the U.S. military, and Trump previously said he authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.