US 'drug war' death toll tops 210 as military strikes another suspected vessel

By Seo Ji-yeon, The Herald Business

The US military struck another vessel suspected of carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific, killing two people — but released no concrete evidence linking the ship to narcotics trafficking, drawing growing criticism.

According to AP and AFP, US Southern Command said Sunday it had carried out an airstrike on a vessel traveling along a known drug-trafficking route in the eastern Pacific.

Footage released by Southern Command showed the vessel engulfed in flames after the strike.

The military said two people aboard were killed and six survivors were handed over to the US Coast Guard, but provided no details on how the survivors were rescued, their identities, or what would happen to them next.

The military also declined to release evidence supporting its claim that the vessel was being used to transport drugs.

The strike is the latest in a series of military operations the Trump administration has been conducting against drug trafficking.

Since last September, the administration has been running Operation Southern Spear across the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, targeting Latin American drug cartels.

Under the operation, US forces track vessels suspected of carrying drugs and intercept them through airstrikes or other use of force.

The military says the campaign has disrupted large-scale drug-smuggling networks, but the death toll has been rising rapidly.

More than 210 people have been killed in the operation to date, according to foreign media reports.

Legal experts and human rights groups have raised questions about the operation's legality.

They argue that attacking a civilian vessel on suspicion of drug trafficking alone is difficult to justify under international law. Causing deaths without any judicial process, they add, amounts in effect to extrajudicial execution.

Debate is also growing over whether the use of military force against civilians who pose no immediate military threat to the US mainland can be considered legitimate.

Human rights organizations are demanding that the US government disclose its targeting criteria, the evidence it relies on, and the results of any after-action investigations.

The Trump administration, however, has maintained that drug cartels constitute a national security threat and that a military response is unavoidable.

Some observers say the United States is in effect waging another war in Latin American waters, even as international attention remains focused on the war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East.