US military says it struck vessel in Eastern Pacific, killing two

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Friday it struck a vessel in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people, in the latest such attack, condemned by rights groups as “extrajudicial killings” and described by Washington as targeting “narco-terrorists.”

• The U.S. Southern Command alleged that the vessel struck on Friday was operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” that it did not identify.

• It said that no U.S. military forces were harmed. It described those killed as “male narco-terrorists,” without offering details.

• “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the U.S. Southern Command said on X.

• A 16 second-long clip released by the Southern Command showed a vessel being struck in the waters.

• The U.S. military has made numerous such deadly strikes in the Eastern Pacific in recent weeks.

• President Donald Trump’s administration has been striking vessels that it accuses of transporting narcotics.

• The U.S. military’s strikes on such vessels have killed more than 170 people since September.

• Experts and human rights advocates, both in the U.S. and globally, have questioned the legality of the strikes.

• Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said the strikes amount to “unlawful extrajudicial killings.”

• The American Civil Liberties Union has cast the assertions by the Trump administration against those it targets as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Tom Hogue)