U.S. military forces struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, according to a U.S. Southern Command announcement carried by the Pentagon. The command said the operation killed three men the Pentagon described as trafficking drugs. It also said the strike did not harm any U.S. personnel.
Wednesday’s announcement did not provide a more precise location for the vessel or identify the organization it said the vessel was operating under. It also did not name the three men killed. In a statement shared by U.S. Southern Command, the command described the attack as a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization.”
The Southern Command said the vessel was transiting along “known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.” It did not provide evidence in the announcement tying the men killed in the strike to drug trafficking, and it did not name the designated organization.
The strike was announced amid several similar U.S. operations in recent days, as the Trump administration continues aggressive anti-cartel actions in international waters. The AP reported that at least 178 people have been killed in the strikes since the effort began in early September, months before a separate U.S. raid in January that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
MSI previously reported that the Pentagon said U.S. forces killed three men in the eastern Pacific in another strike; this latest announcement follows the same pattern of describing the operation as targeting drug trafficking in international waters.