WASHINGTON, United States — US forces on Friday launched a strike against alleged drug traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people, the military said.

 

"Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" along an apparent narco-trafficking route, the US Southern Command posted on X, adding that "three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action."

 

The post included black and white video of the strike that showed an aerial view of a boat before it is bombed and engulfed in flames.

 

The United States began targeting alleged smuggling boats in early September, killing nearly 150 people in total and destroying dozens of vessels since then.

 

Under President Donald Trump, the United States has routinely conducted these strikes without offering definitive evidence of illegal activity, leading legal experts to raise concerns that the deaths could be considered extra-judicial killings.

 

The strikes are part of a campaign that Trump's administration has insisted is needed to combat drug trafficking.

 

It has also stationed naval forces off the coast of South America, seized oil tankers and carried out a stunning raid that captured Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.

 

Maduro is incarcerated in the US awaiting trial for drug and weapons charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.