Latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 112 since early September.By News AgenciesPublished On 1 Jan 20261 Jan 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareThe United States military has killed at least five people in yet another attack on alleged drug smuggling boats, and ordered the country’s coastguard to launch a search for survivors.The statement by US Southern Command on Wednesday did not reveal where the attacks occurred.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listPrevious attacks have been in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.A video posted by the Southern Command on social media shows the boats travelling in a close formation, and the military said they were in a convoy along known narco-trafficking routes and “had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes”.The military did not provide evidence to back up the claim.“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement,” it said. “The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it added.It later said it carried out another strike on the vessels and that two people were killed in the second strike.The military said it had notified the US Coast Guard to “activate the Search and Rescue system”.The request for a rescue effort was notable because the US military drew heavy scrutiny after it killed the survivors of an attack in early September with a follow-up strike on their disabled boat.Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the military committed a crime, while the administration of US President Donald Trump and some Republican lawmakers say the follow-up strike was legal.The Reuters news agency, citing a US official, said eight people had abandoned their vessels and were being searched for in the Pacific Ocean. Advertisement The US Coast Guard also told the agency it had deployed a C-130 aircraft to look for survivors and was working with vessels in the area.This is not the first time there have been survivors of a US strike under the Trump administration. In October, two survivors were repatriated to their home countries after surviving a US military strike.Later that month, Mexican authorities launched a search and rescue effort after another US strike left a survivor. That individual was not found.The attacks on Wednesday bring the total number of known boat strikes to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 112 since early September, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and asserted that Washington is engaged in an “armed co …
