US military strikes another alleged drug boat in Caribbean, killing 3

WorldPolitics
14 Feb 2026 • 9:16 AM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

image is not available

The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean Sea.

U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed three people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.

Friday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 133 people in at least 38 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared last week that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Read More

Immigration officials plan to spend $38.3 billion to boost detention capacity to 92,000 beds

4 indicted after Minneapolis clashes, including a woman accused of biting off an officer’s fingertip

Lindsey Graham says Greenland ‘is behind us’ and ‘who gives a s***’ who owns it