Overview
- U.S. Southern Command, which reported a strike Friday in the Eastern Pacific, said two people were killed and it posted a short video of the burning boat.
- The latest attack brings the tally to at least 183 people killed and about 55 small vessels destroyed since the strikes began in early September.
- The administration has told Congress it treats the operation as armed conflict with cartels based on a classified Justice Department opinion that it says permits lethal action without judicial review.
- The military has not shown public evidence that the targeted boats carried drugs, and human rights groups have condemned the killings as unlawful.
- Search-and-rescue missions have often been launched then suspended without finding all who went overboard, and at least 15 people have survived earlier strikes.