Death toll from US strikes on alleged drug boats reaches 126 people

WASHINGTON (AP) — The death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats is up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea, the U.S. military confirmed Monday.

The figure includes 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.

Eight of the presumed dead had jumped off boats when American forces attacked a trio of vessels accused of trafficking drugs on Dec. 30, the military said. The number was not released previously, though the military said when announcing those strikes that the U.S. Coast Guard had searched for survivors. The two other people presumed dead were on boats that were attacked on Oct. 27 and last Friday.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Critics have questioned the overall legality of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. overland from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

The campaign also drew intense criticism following the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the killings were murder, if not a war crime.

The boat strikes began amid one of the largest buildups of U.S. military might in Latin America in generations, in a pressure campaign that culminated with the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was brought to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges after the Jan. 3 raid by American forces.

There has been one boat strike since then, although the U.S. has been more focused on seizing oil tankers connected with Venezuela as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to take control of the South American country’s oil.

Republicans in Congress have defeated Democratic-led efforts to rein in Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks in Venezuela.