US strikes another boat in the eastern Pacific, killing 2
By Aleena Fayaz, CNN
(CNN) — The US military conducted a strike against another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, killing two people, according to US Southern Command.
“On Feb. 5, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” SOUTHCOM wrote on X, adding that no US military personnel were harmed in the strike.
Donovan assumed command of SOUTHCOM on Thursday and now oversees US military operations and engagements across Latin America and the Caribbean.
At least 119 people have now been killed in strikes on suspected drug boats as part of a campaign, dubbed Operation Southern Spear, that the Trump administration has said is aimed at curtailing narcotics trafficking.
The boat strike is the second known attack of the year. A strike in January killed two people, leaving one survivor.
The administration has publicly presented little evidence that those killed in the ongoing campaign are affiliates of drug cartels, or that each of the vessels had drugs on them. When pressed by lawmakers during congressional briefings, military officials have acknowledged they do not know the identities of everyone on board the boats they have destroyed.
The legality of the strikes has come under intense scrutiny in Congress since the operations began in September, including particular interest in the very first attack, when the military carried out a second strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack. Multiple current and former military lawyers previously told CNN the strikes do not appear lawful.
The Trump administration has told Congress the US is in an “armed conflict” against drug cartels.
US officials have positioned the boat strikes and a huge military buildup in the Caribbean as a way to stop the flow of drugs into the US, but Trump administration officials previously acknowledged in private that the US pressure campaign had been aimed at ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The US military in early January captured Maduro from Caracas and brought him to New York to face criminal charges, which he pleaded not guilty to last month.
Some members of Congress, as well as human rights groups, have questioned the basis of the strikes and argued that potential drug traffickers should face prosecution, as had been the policy of interdiction carried out by the US before President Donald Trump took office.
The families of two men believed to have been killed in an October military strike on a boat in the region filed a lawsuit last week against the US government for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing of the men.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Haley Britzky and Zachary Cohen contributed reporting.
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