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The Pentagon has executed its 20th operation targeting a suspected drug trafficking vessel this week, according to a statement from a Defense Department official.
“The strike took place in the Caribbean, resulting in the deaths of four individuals involved in narco-terrorism, with no survivors,” the official confirmed to CNN on Thursday.
Officials from the Trump administration have admitted that they do not always know the identities of the individuals aboard these vessels before initiating an attack.
The latest strike occurred on Monday, as reported by the official. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously disclosed two additional strikes on Sunday, which marked the 18th and 19th such operations by the U.S. military. Each of those targeted vessels carried three individuals.
Hegseth shared on the social media platform X the following day that all six people from those Sunday strikes were killed. CBS News was the first to report on the 20th strike.
The attack brings the total number of people killed by the US military’s strikes on the alleged drug boats to 80.
CNN has reported that the military is using a variety of fighter jets, drones, and gunships to carry out the strikes in the campaign officials say is meant to disrupt the flow of drugs into the US.
The Justice Department has told Congress the administration does not need its approval to carry out the strikes, which some experts have said could violate US and international law.
The ongoing campaign has also begun to surface tensions with allies; the United Kingdom has stopped sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels to avoid being complicit in the strikes, CNN reported this week, which the UK believes are illegal.
The president of Colombia also said this week that he had ordered his country to suspend intelligence sharing with the US until the attacks stop.