US Military Expands Pacific Drug Vessel Strikes, Reports Eight Attacks

The U.S. military carried out its eighth known strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel — and for the first time struck a boat in the eastern Pacific off Colombia — killing two people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, bringing the campaign’s death toll to at least 34. Hegseth posted video of the strike, called the occupants “narco‑terrorists,” likened the cartels to al Qaeda and framed the attacks as part of an armed conflict to stop drugs bound for the United States. The White House and President Trump have pushed for more aggressive military action, and reporting says a classified legal opinion treats traffickers as enemy combatants and underpins the strikes. Critics, legal experts and some lawmakers have accused the campaign of amounting to extrajudicial killings, noted the administration has not publicly shared evidence or the classified target list, and said Congress has been given little clarity. The administration’s practice of repatriating survivors rather than prosecuting them has added to legal and policy concerns as the strikes expand into the Pacific, a major cocaine transit route.