Military struck drug boat in Caribbean 4 times in Sept. 2 attack, says US official
The U.S. military struck an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean — at the center of a controversy involving Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — four times during a Sept. 2 attack, according to a U.S. official who spoke to The Hill Wednesday morning on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations.
The full attack killed 11 people on board the ship as part of an operation by the Trump administration against what it says are “narco-terrorists.”
The U.S. armed forces hit the purported drug-smuggling vessel four times on Sept. 2, twice to kill the 11 people who were on board and twice more to sink the vessel, the U.S. official who spoke to The Hill said.
The attack has come under deeper scrutiny after reports late last week of a second strike taken to kill survivors of an initial strike.
The Hill has reached out to the Pentagon for comment. The number of strikes on the boat was first reported by The Washington Post.
The Trump administration confirmed Monday that the U.S. military carried out two strikes against the boat, which President Trump said was boarded by individuals linked to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan transnational criminal organization that is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Hegseth said Tuesday that he did not “stick around” to see the second U.S. military strike, noting he had to move on to another “meeting.” The Pentagon chief told reporters that later that day he learned Adm. Frank Bradley, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, had made the decision to carry out the second strike and defended the Navy admiral.
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“Adm. Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat, sunk the boat and eliminated the threat,” Hegseth said Tuesday at the White House. “And it was the right call. We have his back.”
As Trump, who said he would not have wanted a second strike, and Hegseth appear to distance themselves from follow-up blows against the suspected vessel, Bradley will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday to brief top lawmakers on committees overseeing the Pentagon about the attack, the first operation against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea.
Since early September, the U.S. military has conducted a minimum of 21 strikes against vessels in both the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 83 people.
On Tuesday, Hegseth also said he did not see the survivors after the initial strike since the vessel was engulfed in flames.
“It was exploded in fire or smoke. You can’t see anything,” he said. “You got digital … this is called the fog of war.”
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