US army strikes three alleged drug-trafficking boats, killing 11 individuals

The US army struck three alleged drug-trafficking vessels within the japanese Pacific and Caribbean on Monday evening, killing all 11 individuals on board, US Southern Command mentioned Tuesday.“Intelligence confirmed the vessels have been transiting alongside recognized narco-trafficking routes and have been engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” Southern Command mentioned in an announcement. “Eleven male narco-terrorists have been killed throughout these actions, 4 on the primary vessel within the Japanese Pacific, 4 on the second vessel within the Japanese Pacific, and three on the third vessel within the Caribbean. No U.S. army forces have been harmed.”The strikes introduced the dying toll from the US marketing campaign, which started in September, as much as not less than 135 individuals killed, with a number of extra survivors of the strikes presumed useless. The final US strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel was carried out Friday within the Caribbean and killed three individuals, in line with Southern Command.Final fall, the Trump administration produced a categorized authorized opinion that justified the deadly strikes in opposition to a secret checklist of not less than two dozen cartels and suspected drug traffickers classifying them as enemy combatants, CNN has reported.The strikes got here underneath intense scrutiny by authorized consultants and Democratic members of Congress who mentioned they amounted to murdering civilians because the US was not in a declared, congressionally authorised conflict with drug cartels.In not less than one occasion final September, the US army intentionally killed survivors after an preliminary strike on an alleged trafficking vessel didn’t kill everybody on board, prompting accusations that the US had dedicated a conflict crime and sparking congressional investigations.Earlier than the US army started blowing up boats in September, countering illicit drug trafficking was dealt with by regulation enforcement and the US Coast Guard, and cartel members and drug smugglers have been handled as criminals with due course of rights. The Coast Guard continued to interdict drug-trafficking vessels and seizing narcotics within the japanese Pacific with out using deadly power.