The U.S. military struck a boat for the second time this month, President Trump said on Monday, as his administration continued its deadly campaign against Venezuelan drug cartels that it has accused of bringing fentanyl into the United States.
The strike occurred in international waters and killed three people, Mr. Trump said in a social media post.
“This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Mr. Trump wrote, referring to the U.S. military’s Southern Command.
Mr. Trump claimed that the boat was heading to the United States and linked it to “drug trafficking cartels” that he said posed a threat to the country. The president said the people killed were “positively identified,” but he did not identify a specific organization with which they were alleged to be associated.
Mr. Trump also posted a 27-second video on social media that edited together several clips of aerial surveillance. It showed a speedboat bobbing in the water, before a fiery explosion engulfed the vessel. It was unclear what was on the boat.
The Pentagon on Monday offered no other details on the strike, referring to Mr. Trump’s social media post, although a Defense Department official separately said it was a Special Operations strike.
Legal specialists condemned the U.S. military action as illegal, as they had a similar first American attack on another vessel on Sept. 2.
Posted by John3262005
1 Comment
Randomly blowing up boats isn’t going to stop an international multi billion dollar trafficking industry. Easy to predict slightly more land trafficking until Trump gets bored and stops wasting hundred thousand dollar bombs on fishing boats.
This is 100% intended to trick smooth brain Americans into thinking something is being done because they associate cool action scenes with effective law enforcement.
It’ll probably work on the average voter.