Death Toll in US Boat Strikes Hits 163

The US military said it carried out a strike Wednesday on a boat it accused of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing four people, as the Trump administration pushes forward with a monthslong campaign in Latin America while waging a war against Iran. The attack brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the US military to at least 163 since the administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" in early September, the AP reports.

As with most of the military's statements on the dozens of strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, US Southern Command said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs. A video posted on X showed a boat moving across the water before it was engulfed in a bright explosion. President Trump has said the US is in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks, whose legality has been questioned by opponents, as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and fatal overdoses taking American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing "narcoterrorists."