The latest attack brings the death toll from US attacks on ships in the Pacific and Caribbean since September to at least 170.
Published on 14 April 2026
The United States military has launched another attack on a ship in the eastern Pacific, killing two people, in the latest deadly attack by the US military on boats that Washington alleges have links to Latin American drug trafficking cartels.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which is responsible for Washington’s military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, confirmed the attack in a post on social media late Monday, claiming to have killed two “male narco-terrorists” without providing any evidence.
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SOUTHCOM claimed that, based on intelligence reports, the boat was “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific” and was targeted with a “lethal kinetic attack” on the orders of US commander General Francis L. Donovan.
A grainy video clip released along with the statement showed a stationary boat with an outboard engine and a boat floating with fishing nets nearby. The boat is attacked by the wind and bursts into flames.
The attack is the second consecutive day that SOUTHCOM has announced deadly attacks on boats in the Pacific Ocean. On Sunday, the US military said it blew up two boats in the eastern Pacific a day earlier, killing five and leaving one survivor. It was not immediately clear what happened to the survivor of the attack, although SOUTHCOM said the U.S. Coast Guard had been notified.
With Monday’s attack, the US military has killed at least 170 people in dozens of attacks on ships in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Ocean since September.
International law experts, human rights groups and regional governments have accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of carrying out extrajudicial killings in international waters, possibly targeting civilians, often fishing crews, who do not pose an immediate threat to the US.
The Trump administration claims such attacks are part of its war against drug-trafficking cartels in Latin America, but they have provided no concrete evidence that any of the ships targeted since last year were involved in drug trafficking.
