The United States military has carried out a fresh airstrike against a vessel carrying alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea, killing two men and leaving six others shipwrecked, according to officials. The strike, announced on Sunday night, raises the total death toll to over 210 since President Donald Trump’s administration initiated this offensive in September.
In a message published on the social media platform X, the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom)—responsible for military operations across Latin America and the Caribbean—declared that the vessel was “navigating known drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean.”
Black-and-white video footage accompanying the statement showed the boat moving through the water before being struck by a projectile and engulfed in a violent explosion. No U.S. military personnel were injured, the command reported.
Southcom mentioned that the strike left “six surviving men” and stated that it immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search and rescue operations for the shipwrecked survivors.
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This marks the second strike to leave survivors within a single week; on June 16, another military strike left two men shipwrecked. A day later, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it had suspended the search without finding “any sign of survivors or debris.”
The Trump administration has never presented concrete evidence proving that the targeted vessels were actively involved in illicit trafficking. Consequently, legal experts and United Nations officials have repeatedly denounced these operations as extrajudicial executions.
The United States originally launched this maritime mission in September within Southcom’s area of responsibility. Its primary objective was to escalate pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was later captured during a U.S. military operation in Caracas and extradited to New York on January 3.
In parallel, Washington has maintained an aggressive campaign of strikes in both the Pacific and the Caribbean against vessels it claims are participating in drug trafficking activities destined for the United States.
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An internal Pentagon watchdog will investigate the legality of these lethal operations, according to U.S. media reports published in late May.
The oversight body intends to verify whether the military’s joint “six-phase targeting cycles” are being properly followed. According to a source cited by American broadcaster NBC, these cycles govern the entire process from initial target identification to the final post-strike assessment, including intelligence analysis and final command decisions.
