Boat-strike campaign has now killed more than 210 people
U.S. Southern Command announced the strike in a social media post early Monday, saying two people the Pentagon identified as drug traffickers were killed in a vessel in the eastern Pacific. The Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific,” according to the Southern Command statement.
The command said intelligence confirmed the vessel was carrying illegal drugs.
The strike brought the campaign’s cumulative death toll to more than 210, after more than 60 strikes since the operation began, The Associated Press reports. The campaign has targeted vessels the military describes as operating along narco-trafficking routes in both the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Latin America, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Gen. Francis Donovan, who leads U.S. Southern Command, defended the operation in a statement released with the announcement. “We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” Donovan said.