The U.S. military on Wednesday announced it launched attacks on three more boats that were allegedly smuggling drugs.
Three people, who the U.S. Southern Command described as 'narco-terrorists," were killed, while an unknown number of others jumped overboard and potentially survived.
"On Dec. 30, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted kinetic strikes against three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy. These vessels were operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters," the U.S. Southern Command said in a post on X.
"Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes. Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels. Following the engagements, USSOUTHCOM immediately notified @USCG to activate the Search and Rescue system," the U.S. Southern Command added.
The U.S. Southern Command, which oversees South America, did not reveal where the attacks occurred. Previous attacks have been in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 110 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 U.S. and asserted that the nation is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels.