Two killed in strike on alleged drug boat in Pacific Ocean, US military says

The US military has conducted another strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people, US Southern Command said.

Southern Command, whose area of responsibility includes South America, Central America and the Caribbean, announced the strike in a post on X on Friday.

"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the officials said.

The incident is the latest in a series of US strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats since the Trump administration launched its campaign in September.

Southern Command said "two male narco-terrorists" were killed in the action, and no US military forces were harmed.

"On April 24, at the direction of [Southern Command] commander Gen. Francis L Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations," the unit said in its post on X.

The unit also shared a video showing what appeared to be a small fishing boat being struck, causing a large explosion that left the vessel in flames.

Under the Trump administration, US forces have launched dozens of strikes on boats they say are part of a large-scale operation to ferry drugs into the US.

According to the BBC's US partner CBS News more than 180 people have been killed in strikes since September.

But the military has not provided evidence that the attacked boats were carrying drugs or drug smugglers, sparking criticism of the operation and questions around its legality.

Some legal experts have argued that the strikes could violate international law by targeting civilians without offering them due process.

The Trump administration has said the killings are lawful. In a statement to Congress last year, the White House said President Trump had "determined" that the US was in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels and that crews of drug-running boats were "combatants".

The frequency of the strikes has lessened since US forces in January seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the Trump administration has accused of participating in narco-terrorism schemes, which Maduro has previously denied.