WASHINGTON – The U.S. military announced on Wednesday that it conducted strikes against five boats suspected of drug smuggling over a two-day period, resulting in the deaths of eight individuals. Others reportedly leaped into the water and may have survived the incidents.

The operations, overseen by the U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for the region encompassing South America, did not specify the exact locations of the strikes that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Historically, similar military actions have occurred in both the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

In a video released by Southern Command on social media, three boats can be seen traveling in an unusually tight formation. According to the military, these vessels were navigating well-known drug-trafficking routes and had exchanged narcotics among themselves before the strikes were executed. However, no concrete evidence was provided by the military to support these assertions.

The military reported that the first boat strike resulted in three fatalities. Meanwhile, individuals aboard the other two boats abandoned ship and swam away before those vessels were targeted. Following these events, Southern Command stated that the U.S. Coast Guard was promptly alerted to initiate search and rescue missions.

The statement from Southern Command did not clarify whether the individuals who jumped from the boats were subsequently rescued.

Calling in the Coast Guard is notable because the U.S. military drew heavy scrutiny after U.S. forces killed the survivors of an attack in early September with a follow-up strike to their disabled boat. Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the military committed a crime, while the Trump administration and some Republican lawmakers say the follow-up strike was legal.

U.S. forces attacked two more boats on Wednesday, killing five people who were allegedly smuggling drugs along known trafficking routes, Southern Command said in a separate statement. It did not provide evidence of the alleged trafficking or reveal the body of water in which the attacks occurred. Videos posted with the statement on social media showed a boat in the water and explosions.

The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 35 and the number of people killed to at least 115 since early September, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

Along with the strikes, the Trump administration has built up military forces in the region as part of an escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narco-terrorism in the United States.

Meanwhile, the CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to two people familiar with details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the classified matter.

It was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September, a significant escalation in the administration’s pressure campaign on Maduro’s government.