Five killed as US military destroys two more vessels in Pacific Ocean

US military says ‘lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels’ killed three people in one craft and two in another.Published On 19 Dec 2025United States forces have killed five more people on board vessels in the Pacific Ocean, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged seaborne drug traffickers to at least 104 since September.The US military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said on Friday that it carried out “lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels” in the eastern Pacific at the instruction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, killing three people in one vessel and two in another.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4US kills 4 in latest Pacific Ocean attack as Venezuela tension spiralslist 2 of 4Trump orders naval blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankerslist 3 of 4Top Trump aide suggests boat strikes aim to topple Venezuela’s Madurolist 4 of 4US Senate passes $901bn defence billend of listThursday’s attack by US forces comes one day after a strike on another vessel, also in international waters in the eastern Pacific, which killed four people, SOUTHCOM said.While the US military said the nine victims of the attacks over two days were “male narco-terrorists”, Washington has provided no proof that the almost 30 vessels destroyed since September in the Pacific and Caribbean, resulting in more than 100 dead, were involved in drug trafficking.Defence Secretary Hegseth is also under intense scrutiny for reportedly ordering a second strike on survivors who clung to floating boat debris after an earlier attack on a vessel – attacking shipwreck survivors is considered a war crime, according to legal experts.Latin American leaders and law experts have branded the US attacks “extrajudicial killings” while Trump has sought to justify the killings as necessary to halt drug trafficking into the US from Latin American drug cartels, particularly those based in Venezuela.Trump has also ordered a huge military deployment to Latin America and has threatened to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, accusing him of overseeing a drug trafficking cartel.