Strike on alleged drug vessel kills four in the Caribbean, US military says

The US has launched another strike on a vessel in the Caribbean, killing four people, the US Southern Command said.The command, which oversees combatant operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced on X that it had conducted a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations”.Wednesday’s strikes brings the total number of deaths to at least 163 people since the defense department began attacking alleged “narco-terrorists” last September in more than 45 strikes.Without including evidence, the US Southern Command said that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”The strike killed four alleged drug smugglers, according to the US Southern Command. No US military personnel were harmed, it added.The latest strike comes as part of the US Southern Command’s efforts to apply “total systemic friction on the cartels”.Last Friday, the US military said it had carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on another alleged drug-smuggling boat in the eastern Pacific that left one survivor and two people dead.Despite the defense department framing the strikes as attacks against “narco-terrorism”, it has provided little evidence on whether the vessels were actually transporting drugs. The attacks have been condemned as extrajudicial killings by the UN and other humanitarian organizations.According to a 2020 report by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, 74% of the cocaine reaching the US arrived through the Pacific, while only 8% came from fast boats from the Caribbean.The Guardian has contacted the White House for comment.