Depenepen Secretary Pete Hegseth announced another deadly strap on a boat accused of drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean in a new expansion of military firepower.
The attack killed two people on board, Hegseth said, bringing the death toll from the Trump Administration’s waters to 166 people in at least 16 strikes.
Donald Trump justified the strikes by insisting that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming that the boats are operated by foreign terrorists. The administration did not provide evidence or additional details.
“We will find and terminate every container with the intent to sell drugs to America to poison our citizens,” Hegseth said.
Lawmakers from both parties pressed the administration for more information on who was targeted and the legal justification for the strikes.
The latest attack comes as the USS Gerald Rard of Aircraft Carrier left the Mediterranean Sea to go to the Caribbean after a week in the region. It will involve a strong deployment of American planes, ships and thousands of troops in Latin America.
A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ship’s movements, confirmed that the Ford and the destroyer Bainbridge crossed the straits of Gibraltar and the Atlantic on Tuesday.
Ford originally laid out five destroyers, but it is not clear if they will all go to the Caribbean. Two of the other destroyers in the Ford strike group, the USS Winston Churchill and the USS Mahan, are with the Mahan in Port of Rota, Spain.
The other two destroyers, USS Forrest Sherman and USS Mitchener, are in the Red Sea, the official said.
In the latest strike, a video hegseth posted on Social Media has a gray box stopping a boat visible in the water before it fows up. The footage then cuts to the ship engulfed in flames.