US expands Pacific strikes as maritime campaign intensifies

The US military has carried out another strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing four people and marking the fourth such attack in as many days.

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced the strike on Tuesday, releasing video footage showing a stationary boat being hit by a missile and erupting into flames.

According to SOUTHCOM, those killed were “narco-terrorists”, though no supporting evidence was provided. The command said the strike was based on intelligence indicating that “the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations”.

The latest incident fits into a pattern of near-daily strikes. Two people were killed in a similar operation on Monday, while five others died in two separate strikes on Saturday. Taken together, the recent attacks have pushed the overall death toll to at least 175 since early September, when the campaign was launched under orders from US President Donald Trump. The operations target vessels in international waters that US officials say are linked to Latin American drug trafficking networks. However, the military has not publicly released detailed intelligence to substantiate these claims, a point that has drawn scrutiny from legal experts and rights groups.

The Associated Press reported that the US Coast Guard has suspended the search for a survivor from Saturday’s strikes, underscoring the limited number of cases in which people have been recovered after such attacks.

Criticism of the campaign has focused on both legality and effectiveness. Some legal experts argue that even if vessels are involved in trafficking, those on board should be detained and prosecuted rather than targeted with lethal force. Others question the strategic impact, noting that much of the fentanyl driving overdose deaths in the US is transported over land routes rather than by sea.