Breaking: The US military said on Sunday that four people were killed in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea — the latest in a series of attacks Washington says target "narco-terrorists" but which human rights experts condemn as extrajudicial killings.
The US Southern Command said on X that it "executed a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean." It cited what it called "confirmed intelligence" to allege the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking, without providing more details, and said four people it described as "narco-terrorists" were killed.
The Trump administration has said the vessels it has struck since September 2025 were transporting narcotics. Reuters reports that US strikes on such vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have killed more than 220 people in that period.
Rights groups condemn legality
The strikes' legality has been questioned by experts and rights advocates in the US and abroad. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and independent UN experts have called the strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings. Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, has said there are "reasonable grounds to believe" such attacks "constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law."
The American Civil Liberties Union has described the administration's assertions against those it targets as "unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims."
The Pentagon has not released identities, evidence, or the legal rationale for individual strikes, even as the campaign has expanded from the Caribbean into the Eastern Pacific.
Sources: Reuters: US military says it struck vessel in Caribbean, killing four
The US Southern Command said on X that it "executed a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean." It cited what it called "confirmed intelligence" to allege the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking, without providing more details, and said four people it described as "narco-terrorists" were killed.
The Trump administration has said the vessels it has struck since September 2025 were transporting narcotics. Reuters reports that US strikes on such vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have killed more than 220 people in that period.
Rights groups condemn legality
The strikes' legality has been questioned by experts and rights advocates in the US and abroad. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and independent UN experts have called the strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings. Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, has said there are "reasonable grounds to believe" such attacks "constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law."
The American Civil Liberties Union has described the administration's assertions against those it targets as "unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims."
The Pentagon has not released identities, evidence, or the legal rationale for individual strikes, even as the campaign has expanded from the Caribbean into the Eastern Pacific.
Sources: Reuters: US military says it struck vessel in Caribbean, killing four
