US Military Strikes Kill 11 in Three Boat Attacks, Raising Death Toll to 145
US forces struck three alleged drug-trafficking vessels on Monday, killing 11 people and bringing the total death toll to at least 145 since September in 42 known strikes across Latin American waters.
The U.S. military carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters on Monday, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration's monthslong campaign. The series of strikes brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" in small vessels in early September.
U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. Two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean Sea. The military did not provide evidence that the vessels were ferrying drugs, but posted videos that showed boats being destroyed.
"Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations," U.S. Southern Command said. Officials added that no U.S. military forces were harmed.
The military action on Monday brought the number of fatalities caused by US strikes to 145 since September, when the administration called on American armed forces to attack people deemed "narco-terrorists" on small vessels. There have been 42 known strikes in notorious drug-trafficking routes such as the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing "narcoterrorists."
Many have questioned the legality of the U.S. boat strike initiative. Some legal experts have said the attacks are tantamount to extrajudicial military killings without an imminent threat of violence.
"Those being killed by US military strikes at sea are denied any due process whatsoever," a recent analysis by the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy organization, said. The Trump administration, the office said, was "asserting and exercising an apparently unlimited license to kill people that the president deems to be terrorists".
The U.S. Southern Command carried out two deadly boat strikes last week, similarly claiming those killed were suspected of drug trafficking. A strike on Friday killed three suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean. That attack was the first known strike in the Caribbean Sea since early November. A strike on Monday in the eastern Pacific resulted in the deaths of two suspected drug smugglers, with one survivor.
The recent spate of strikes come weeks after US forces attacked Caracas, capturing the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, to face trial in New York on drugs, weapons and narco-terrorism charges. While the Trump administration has portrayed boat strikes and Maduro's capture as part of a fight against narco-terrorism, there has not been abundant evidence of trafficking rings.
The first attack by US forces on vessels in international waters, which took place in September 2025, included a follow-up strike that killed survivors who were clinging to the wreckage of a destroyed boat. Administration officials, including the defense secretary and the commander of the operation, were placed under scrutiny for the order to carry out the second attack on survivors. Legal experts said that the US military could be involved in a crime for killing the survivors of a shipwreck.
The Pentagon had deployed more than a dozen warships to waters near Venezuela, to block drug trafficking and the illegal oil trade. Several of those ships have since been dispatched eastward amid Trump's military threats to Iran over its nuclear weapons program. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, which until now patrolled the Caribbean coast near Venezuela, was heading to the Middle East. The crew was notified on Thursday. The ship will not return to its home ports until late April or early May.
Gen Francis L Donovan was sworn in as the new head of the Southern Command earlier this month. Donovan took over after a U.S. navy admiral chose to retire over reported disagreements over the boat-strike policy.