WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s internal watchdog will examine whether the U.S. military observed its own targeting protocol during a monthslong campaign of boat strikes that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, the office announced Tuesday.
The review, described in a May 11 letter to Defense Department officials, will focus on the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle—a standard military process that begins with a commander’s intent and proceeds through target development, analysis, decision, execution, and assessment. The inspector general’s office said the evaluation was “self-initiated” and declined to provide a timeline for its completion. Bloomberg earlier reported on the review.
The evaluation does not extend to the legality of the strikes, which have drawn sharp questions from some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars. Since early September, U.S. forces have struck dozens of vessels that the Trump administration says belong to drug-trafficking organizations. The administration describes the operations as a wartime campaign against cartels it holds responsible for fatal drug overdoses in American communities.
The Pentagon has not disclosed how many separate boat strikes it has carried out, but reporting by The Associated Press has tallied at least 194 deaths across multiple incidents since the campaign began. The inspector general’s review arrives as Congress and outside experts debate the legal underpinnings of lethal force applied against non-state vessels in international waters.