'
The US says it has ‘only just begun’ attacks on drug boats, despite accusations of war crimes
International

The US says it has ‘only just begun’ attacks on drug boats, despite accusations of war crimes

author
2 minutes, 30 seconds Read

Key points
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US has “just started” targeting suspected drug smuggling ships.
  • The US military has been accused of war crimes after an earlier attack included a second attack on a disabled boat.
  • The White House distanced Hegseth from the decision to re-attack and placed responsibility on Admiral Frank Bradley.
The United States has “just started” targeting suspected drug trafficking boats, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted, despite growing outrage over strikes that critics say amount to extrajudicial killings.
Hegseth and President Donald Trump’s administration have come under fire, especially over an incident in which U.S. forces launched a follow-up attack on the wreckage of an already stricken ship, reportedly killing two survivors.

Both the White House and the Pentagon have tried to distance Hegseth from that decision – which some US politicians have said could constitute a war crime – instead placing blame on the admiral who directly oversaw the operation.

“We are just beginning to attack narco boats and plant narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they have poisoned the American people,” Hegseth said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“We’ve paused because it’s hard to find boats to strike right now – and that’s the whole point, right? Deterrence has to matter,” Hegseth said.

The Pentagon chief said he watched the first attack but “personally saw no survivors,” while also defending the second attack, saying it was “the right decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.”

The Trump administration insists it is in fact at war with so-called “narcoterrorists” and in early September began launching attacks on ships it says were carrying drugs – a campaign that has so far killed 83 people. They have failed to provide evidence of drug trafficking allegations.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said the strikes were “in violation of international human rights law” and must stop immediately.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson insisted the strikes were legal.

The operations “are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions consistent with the laws of armed conflict,” she told a news conference.

Wilson also reiterated the White House’s claim that Admiral Frank Bradley – who now heads the US Special Operations Command – “made the decision to re-attack the narco-terrorist vessel,” saying the senior naval officer “operated under clear and long-standing authorities to ensure the boat was destroyed.”
“Any follow-on strike, like the one led by Admiral Bradley, is something the secretary would 100 percent agree with,” she added.

Wilson addressed a friendly audience, excluding dozens of journalists who refused to sign a new restrictive Pentagon media policy from the event earlier this year.

The follow-up attack that killed survivors took place on September 2 and appears to have violated the Pentagon’s own war code, which states that “orders to fire on shipwrecked sailors would be clearly illegal.”

#begun #attacks #drug #boats #accusations #war #crimes

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *