{"id":68461,"date":"2026-03-09T03:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/us-conducts-strike-on-another-boat-carrying-suspected-narco-traffickers-killing-6-people\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T03:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:57:26","slug":"us-conducts-strike-on-another-boat-carrying-suspected-narco-traffickers-killing-6-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/us-conducts-strike-on-another-boat-carrying-suspected-narco-traffickers-killing-6-people\/","title":{"rendered":"US conducts strike on another boat carrying suspected narco-traffickers, killing 6 people"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon<\/a> on Sunday announced that U.S. forces have carried out a lethal strike on a vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing six people on board.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted “a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations” at the direction of the new leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, who took over in January.<\/p>\n

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the Southern Command said in a press release.<\/p>\n

NEW LAWSUIT PRESSES PENTAGON, STATE DEPT TO DISCLOSE LEGAL JUSTIFICATION FOR VENEZUELAN BOAT STRIKES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Six men on the ship were killed but no U.S. forces died in the attack on the vessel, according to the Southern Command.<\/p>\n

The latest strike brings the death toll in the Trump administration’s<\/a> attacks on ships carrying people it accuses of drug smuggling to at least 156, according to The New York Times.<\/p>\n

This was the 45th strike since the U.S. began targeting boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific in early September and comes amid a recent increase in the pace of strikes, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

BIPARTISAN PUSH GROWS IN SENATE TO FORCE RELEASE OF UNEDITED CARIBBEAN STRIKE FOOTAGE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The attack on Sunday was one of the deadliest boat strikes the military has conducted in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

“Going on offense with Operation Southern Spear has restored deterrence against the narco-terrorist cartels that profited from poisoning Americans,” Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth<\/a> said last week. “Last month, we went a few weeks without targeting a single boat. Why? Well, because we couldn’t find a whole lot of boats to sink, and that’s the whole point is to establish deterrence from narco-terrorists who have been able to traffic almost unfettered.”<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed in the strikes since last fall or provide evidence of drugs on board.<\/p>\n

The administration has been scrutinized in recent months over the strikes, including by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has raised concerns<\/a> about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people.<\/p>\n

“I look at my colleagues who say they\u2019re pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s\u2011\u2011- about these people in the boats,” Paul said in January. “Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”<\/p>\n

The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon on Sunday announced that U.S. forces have carried out a lethal strike on a vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing six people on board. The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted “a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations” at the direction of the new … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}