US strikes suspected drug-smuggling boat in Caribbean Sea, killing four

The United States has carried out a strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea suspected of being used for drug trafficking, killing four people, according to the US Department of Defense.

The strike was carried out on Saturday. It brings the number of people killed in US military strikes on boats over the past year to 231, with a total of 69 such strikes reported during the period.

The US Southern Command said the boat was travelling along a known route used for drug trafficking and was targeted on that basis.

However, the US military has not released evidence showing that drugs were actually aboard the vessel. The military released video footage of the operation showing a moving boat followed by an explosion.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has been conducting operations against suspected drug traffickers in Latin America for nearly a year. Trump has referred to such groups as “narco-terrorists.”

The United States is also seeking to expand the campaign to land operations and has been holding discussions with several Latin American countries.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last month that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the United States to conduct joint operations against criminal groups in their countries. Guatemala later denied that it had agreed to such operations.

The United States is also conducting similar operations with Ecuador. Last month, US forces carried out an operation against a boat suspected of being involved in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific Ocean, sinking the vessel.

Trump has said the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug traffickers and that the strikes are intended to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the country.

However, the US administration has so far provided limited evidence to support claims that those killed in the strikes were drug traffickers.

The first strike of this kind was carried out on September 2, 2025. In that incident, the same boat was struck twice. Two people who survived the first strike were later killed in the second.

The US military said 11 people were killed in the two strikes. Several lawmakers and legal experts later questioned the legality of the operations. Some argued that a second strike against people who had survived the initial attack could potentially constitute a war crime.