U.S. Southern Command confirmed that President Donald Trump’s administration directed another U.S. military strike against a drug trafficking vessel on Thursday, which resulted in the death of “four male narco-terrorists.”
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, U.S. Southern Command announced, “On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed.”
U.S. Southern Command also released a video of Thursday’s lethal strike against the narco-terrorists.
Fox News reported that Thursday’s strike against the drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific marks the 22nd strike the Trump administration has executed against suspected drug vessels operated by designated terrorist organizations this year. The outlet noted that Thursday’s strike, which was the first military strike against narco-terrorists in over two weeks, now brings the total number of individuals killed to 86.
READ MORE: Pic: Hegseth shares meme of iconic children’s book character blowing up narco terrorists
Thursday’s strike comes amid controversy over a previous U.S. military strike against a drug trafficking vessel in the Caribbean on September 2, in light of a report that claimed a Joint Special Operations commander in charge of the mission “ordered a second strike to comply with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s instructions” to “kill everybody.”
According to Fox News, Adm. Mitch Bradley told lawmakers on Thursday that Hegseth did not give the alleged order to kill the survivors of the U.S. military strike on the drug trafficking vessel. The outlet noted that both Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) confirmed “there had not been a kill them all order” with regard to the September 2 strike.
