US says 11 killed in latest strikes on alleged drug boats

US military officials said American forces attacked three alleged drug-smuggling boats, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s months-long campaign against suspected traffickers. The action raised the number of fatalities from US strikes to 145 since September, when Donald Trump urged American forces to attack people he called “narco-terrorists” on small vessels.

There have been 42 known strikes along notorious routes such as the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. US Southern Command posted video of this week’s strikes and said intelligence showed the vessels were transiting known narco-trafficking routes and engaged in narco-trafficking operations.

Officials said four men were killed on one boat in the eastern Pacific, four on another vessel in the eastern Pacific, and three on a vessel in the Caribbean, and that no US military forces were harmed. The command had also carried out two deadly boat strikes last week.

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