The United States military says it has carried out strikes on three boats accused of trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean, killing eight people, as scrutiny intensifies over the legality and intent of the campaign.
The US Southern Command released footage of the strikes and said the vessels were moving along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in drug smuggling activities.
The latest incident adds to more than 20 vessels targeted in the Pacific and Caribbean in recent months, with at least 90 people reported killed under President Donald Trump’s expanding anti-drug operations.
Several legal experts told BBC Verify that a September strike involving two successive attacks on the same boat was probably illegal under international law.
The second strike, which killed survivors of the first, was described by experts as likely constituting an extrajudicial killing.
A former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court previously said the broader campaign could amount to a planned and systematic attack against civilians during peacetime.
The White House said the operations were conducted in line with the laws of armed conflict to protect the United States from cartels “trying to bring poison to our shores... destroying American lives”.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to brief members of Congress alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, amid pressure to release footage of the controversial incident.
Comments attributed to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles suggested the strikes may be aimed at undermining Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“He [Trump] wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” Wiles was quoted as saying in Vanity Fair.
The remarks appeared to contradict the administration’s public framing of the campaign as solely an anti-narcotics effort.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of funnelling drugs into the US and has designated two Venezuelan criminal groups as foreign terrorist organisations.
Venezuela has condemned recent US actions, including the seizure of an oil tanker off its coast, calling them acts of international piracy.
As military assets are positioned near Venezuela, legal experts and regional leaders continue to warn that the strikes may violate international and maritime law.