Overview
- U.S. Southern Command said it blew up a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean, killing three people, and posted a 12-second strike video.
- The command said the vessel followed known trafficking routes and belonged to a designated terrorist group, yet it named no group and offered no proof the boat carried drugs.
- Seventeen people have died in six publicly announced strikes in a little over a week, according to UPI’s tally.
- Public counts put the campaign’s death toll at at least 181 since September, with about 55 small boats destroyed across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
- President Donald Trump calls the effort an armed conflict with cartels, as U.N. experts, rights groups, and House Democrats challenge its legality, including impeachment articles targeting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.