President Trump said Friday the U.S. military has carried out another “lethal kinetic strike” on a boat accused of carrying drugs — at least the third strike in recent weeks.
The president announced the move in a Truth Social post that included a video of a strike on a vessel. He said three “male narcoterrorists” were killed, and no Americans were harmed. Mr. Trump didn’t specify where the boat was located, but he said it was in international waters in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, which includes the Caribbean Sea and South America.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans,” he wrote. “STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!”
CBS News has reached out to the Pentagon for more details.
Friday’s strike is the third attack on an alleged drug boat publicly announced by Mr. Trump, following similar strikes on Monday and at the beginning of the month. For the first two strikes, Mr. Trump alleged that the boats hailed from Venezuela, but he didn’t mention a country of origin when announcing Friday’s attack.
Venezuela has not commented on the latest strike. CBS News has reached out to Venezuelan officials for comment.
The strikes come as the Trump administration vows to crack down on drug trafficking in Central and South America. The federal government has designated multiple drug cartels and transnational gangs as terrorist organizations, and last month, Mr. Trump directed the military to target cartels, CBS News reported.
Meanwhile, tensions between the U.S. government and Venezuela have soared, as the administration accuses Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of links to drug trafficking — a charge his government has vehemently denied.
The U.S. Navy has sent several warships to the waters off Venezuela in recent weeks, and 10 F-35 fighter jets were deployed to Puerto Rico this month for anti-cartel operations.
Maduro has called the warships an “absolutely criminal and bloody threat.” On two occasions earlier this month, Venezuelan fighter jets flew near a U.S. naval ship, in what multiple Defense Department officials described to CBS News as a “game of chicken.”
Venezuela also accused the U.S. of seizing a fishing vessel in its exclusive economic zone last weekend and detaining nine fishermen for several hours.
The first alleged drug boat that was struck earlier this month appeared to be turning around at the time of the strike, CBS News has previously reported.
Several Democratic lawmakers have pushed back on the strikes, arguing that the Trump administration hasn’t given a legal justification for using the military.
“President Trump’s actions are an outrageous violation of the law and a dangerous assault on our Constitution,” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said this week. “No president can secretly wage war or carry out unjustified killings – that is authoritarianism, not democracy.”
After the first boat was struck in early September, the White House sent a notification to Congress arguing the strikes fell under Mr. Trump’s legal authority.
“I directed these actions consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority as commander in chief and chief executive to conduct United States foreign relations,” the notice said.
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