US strike on suspected drug-smuggling boat kills two in eastern Pacific

Washington,UPDATED: Jun 22, 2026 10:10 IST

The US military has carried out another strike on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people and leaving six survivors. The attack on Thursday is part of an ongoing US campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America under President Donald Trump.

With this latest action, the number of such strikes has crossed 60, and more than 210 people have been killed in boat strikes since the Trump administration began targeting what it calls "narcoterrorists" in early September. The strikes have also come under scrutiny over their legality, the evidence behind them and their overall effectiveness.

It is not clear whether the six survivors from Thursday's strike, or the two survivors from a June 16 strike, were rescued. In both cases, the US military said it had notified the US Coast Guard. The Pentagon did not immediately answer questions.

As in most of the military's statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, US Southern Command said the alleged traffickers were targeted along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was carrying drugs. A black-and-white video posted on X showed a boat moving at speed through the water before it was hit by a visible projectile and burst into flames.

Trump has said the US is in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America and has defended the attacks as a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the United States and prevent fatal overdoses. But the administration has offered little evidence to back its claims of killing "narcoterrorists".

Critics have questioned both the legality of the strikes and whether they are effective. Part of that argument is that the fentanyl linked to many fatal drug overdoses in the US is usually trafficked over land from Mexico, where it is made using chemicals imported from China and India.

On Thursday, US lawmakers asked the Pentagon to release "unedited video" of the first strike carried out by the military after reports said the US later struck survivors of the initial attack. In that case, two men survived an attack that killed nine others and were clinging to the wreckage when the vessel was hit again, killing them. The White House confirmed the follow-up strike and said it was carried out "in self-defence" to ensure the boat was destroyed and was in line with the laws of armed conflict. However, some legal scholars said a second strike that killed survivors would have been illegal under any circumstances, whether there was armed conflict or not.

The Pentagon's watchdog said in May it would examine whether the military followed the established targeting framework while carrying out the strikes. The inspector general's office said the review would focus on the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes. Overall, the latest attack has added to concerns over a US campaign that has grown in scale even as questions remain over rescue efforts, evidence and legal standards.

With PTI Inputs

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