US conducts strike on another boat carrying suspected narco-traffickers, killing 6 people

By Fox News · Fox News

The Pentagon on Sunday announced that U.S. forces have carried out a lethal strike on a vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing six people on board. The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted "a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" at the direction of the new leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, who took over in January. "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the Southern Command said in a press release. NEW LAWSUIT PRESSES PENTAGON, STATE DEPT TO DISCLOSE LEGAL JUSTIFICATION FOR VENEZUELAN BOAT STRIKES Six men on the ship were killed but no U.S. forces died in the attack on the vessel, according to the Southern Command. The latest strike brings the death toll in the Trump administration's attacks on ships carrying people it accuses of drug smuggling to at least 156, according to The New York Times. This was the 45th strike since the U.S. began targeting boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific in early September and comes amid a recent increase in the pace of strikes, the newspaper reported. BIPARTISAN PUSH GROWS IN SENATE TO FORCE RELEASE OF UNEDITED CARIBBEAN STRIKE FOOTAGE The attack on Sunday was one of the deadliest boat strikes the military has conducted in recent weeks. "Going on offense with Operation Southern Spear has restored deterrence against the narco-terrorist cartels that profited from poisoning Americans," Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said last week. "Last month, we went a few weeks without targeting a single boat. Why? Well, because we couldn't find a whole lot of boats to sink, and that's the whole point is to establish deterrence from narco-terrorists who have been able to traffic almost unfettered." The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed in the strikes since last…