US Military Claims Attack On Alleged Drug Vessel In Pacific Ocean, Kills Three People

Last Updated:February 21, 2026, 10:56 IST

No evidence was presented to substantiate the US military’s claim that the three people killed were involved in drug trafficking.

The United States military killed three people after striking a boat in the eastern Pacific, in what it said was the latest action against a vessel in international waters allegedly linked to drug trafficking.

According to US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which is responsible for military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, three men were killed in the attack on Friday. It described the operation as a “lethal kinetic strike" in an area of the Pacific Ocean that was a “known narco-trafficking route".

No evidence was presented to substantiate the US military’s claim that the three people killed were involved in drug trafficking.

A short video clip, apparently featuring the latest attack, was released on social media by SOUTHCOM, showing a stationary boat with outboard engines bursting into flames and drifting after being hit by US fire.

The deaths on Friday bring the toll from vessel strikes carried out under President Donald Trump’s administration in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea to at least 148 people, across roughly 43 US military attacks since early September.

Leaders in Latin America, along with legal experts and human rights advocates, have challenged the legality of the campaign, accusing US forces of carrying out extrajudicial killings in international waters beyond Washington’s jurisdiction.

Earlier this week, the United States Southern Command said it had carried out three separate strikes on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing a total of 11 people.

Ben Saul, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, said the US military’s public statements about the operations amounted to an admission of the “murder of civilians at sea."

“US leaders must be held accountable by US or international justice," Saul said.

Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and US Admiral Frank Bradley, have faced scrutiny over reports that the first vessel strike in September 2025 involved a follow-up attack that killed survivors clinging to the wreckage.

News world US Military Claims Attack On Alleged Drug Vessel In Pacific Ocean, Kills Three People

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