U.S. Military Conducts 22nd Strike Under Secretary Pete Hegseth
On Dec. 4, U.S. Southern Command said Joint Task Force Southern Spear, at the direction of Secretary Pete Hegseth, carried out a lethal strike on a vessel in international waters that intelligence assessed was transporting illicit narcotics along a known trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. The command reported four people aboard the boat were killed, bringing the total fatalities in this series of strikes to 86.
Southern Command released video of the engagement on social media showing the strike on the suspected drug-carrying vessel. Officials described the operation as part of ongoing counter-narcotics efforts targeting vessels allegedly operated by a designated terrorist organization.
Congressional Scrutiny and Differing Accounts
The latest operation takes place amid intense congressional scrutiny of a Sept. 2 counter-narcotics mission in the Caribbean that has drawn questions over how survivors were handled. Adm. Mitch Bradley told lawmakers that Secretary Hegseth did not order commanders to "kill them all," pushing back on a Washington Post report attributing such an instruction to Hegseth. Rep. Jim Himes said Bradley confirmed there was no explicit order to grant no quarter, a position echoed by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton.
Rep. Jim Himes described the survivors in video he viewed as "shipwrecked sailors," while Sen. Tom Cotton said the footage showed them "trying to flip their boat back over and continue their mission."
Members of Congress who watched the footage offered sharply different interpretations. Sen. Chris Coons called the videos troubling to watch, while Rep. Rick Crawford criticized lawmakers he said were not acknowledging the challenges of targeting individuals tied to designated terrorist organizations.
Other Recent Operations And Legal Questions
Other strikes in the campaign have produced varied outcomes. An Oct. 16 operation killed two people and resulted in two survivors being captured and returned to Colombia and Mexico, officials said. A series of strikes on Oct. 27 killed 14 people, with one survivor left for retrieval by the Mexican coast guard.
Legal analysts have raised concerns after reports that survivors from the Sept. 2 incident were killed in a follow-up strike. They point to the Pentagon's Law of War manual, which generally prohibits attacking persons rendered helpless by wounds, sickness or shipwreck unless those persons resume hostile action. Pentagon officials have argued that survivors could have posed an ongoing threat if they were able to call for reinforcements, a factor Admiral Bradley said he considered when evaluating the situation.
Secretary Hegseth has said he observed the initial Sept. 2 engagement in real time but did not view the subsequent follow-up strike and was not involved in authorizing it; he has said he stands by Admiral Bradley's decisions. Reporting on this story included contributions from Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips.
