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US Conducts New Strike on Drug Boat 12/05 06:09
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Southern Command announced that it had conducted
another strike against a small boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday,
following a pause of almost three weeks.
It is the 22nd strike the U.S. military has carried out against boats in the
Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that the Trump administration claimed
were trafficking drugs.
There were four casualties in Thursday's strike, according to the social
media post, bringing the death toll of the campaign to at least 87 people.
In a video that accompanied the announcement, a small boat can be seen
moving across the water before it is suddenly consumed by a large explosion.
The video then zooms out to show the boat covered in flames and billowing smoke.
The strike was conducted the same day Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley appeared
for a series of closed-door classified briefings at the U.S. Capitol as
lawmakers began an investigation into the very first strike carried out by the
military on Sept. 2. The sessions came after a report that Bradley ordered a
follow-on attack that killed the survivors to comply with Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth's demands.
Bradley told lawmakers there was no "kill them all" order from Hegseth, but
a stark video of the entire series of attacks left some lawmakers with serious
questions.
Legal experts have said killing survivors of a strike at sea could be a
violation of the laws of military warfare.
Bradley spoke to lawmakers alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, in a classified session. His testimony provided fresh
information at a crucial moment as Hegseth's leadership comes under scrutiny,
but it did little to resolve growing questions about the legal basis for
President Donald Trump's extraordinary campaign to use war powers against
suspected drug smugglers.
Lawmakers offered differing accounts of what they saw on the video.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said he saw the survivors "trying to
flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could
stay in the fight."
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence
Committee, said, "What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things
I've seen in my time in public service."
"You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of
locomotion, with a destroyed vessel," he said, adding they "were killed by the
United States."
Washington Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services
Committee, said the survivors were "basically two shirtless people clinging to
the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water -- until the
missiles come and kill them."
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