US strikes a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing 2 people in first attack in months

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a pause of more than two months, the U.S. military announced Monday that it once again carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs.

It brings the overall death toll to 223 people killed in 67 strikes during the nearly yearlong U.S. campaign of bombing alleged drug boats off Latin America’s Caribbean coast and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. U.S. Southern Command says the campaign has resulted in the destruction of 64 speedboats, three “low-profile” ships and a semisubmersible craft.

The command said on social media early Monday that forces “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narcotrafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.” The military said the strike occurred Sunday, and it marked the first since powerful back-to-back June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela killed thousands of people.

As with most of the military’s statements, Southern Command did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs.

“We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” said Gen. Francis Donovan, who leads U.S. Southern Command.

The latest strike comes as the Trump administration pursues deals with allied nations to extend its offensive to land across multiple Latin American countries. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a visit to Panama this month that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil. Guatemala denied reaching such a deal.

Ecuador launched similar missions with the U.S. in March.

The Trump administration’s boat bombing campaign began in early September and has left numerous survivors, but most of them have never been recovered.

U.S. Southern Command said in a separate statement Monday that there have been more than 20 search and rescue efforts overall, almost all of which were unsuccessful.

According to data compiled from the command’s social media posts, the strikes have generated 28 survivors with only three people ever being rescued — one person during a strike in March who was transferred to the Costa Rican Coast Guard, and two wounded people who were later repatriated to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

The very first strike in September 2025 left two survivors who were killed in a second, follow-up strike. When that became public, it drew concern from some lawmakers and those who study military law. The White House insisted it was done “in self-defense” to ensure the boat was destroyed and in accordance with armed conflict laws.

But some legal scholars said a second strike killing survivors would have been illegal under any circumstance, armed conflict or not.

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 into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

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

The Pentagon’s watchdog said in May that it plans to look into whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out the strikes. However, the evaluation is focused specifically on what’s known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes, the inspector general’s office said.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.