Three killed as US military claims strike on suspected drug vessel in Pacific

US vessel strikes spark legality concerns

The United States military has killed three people after striking a boat in the eastern Pacific, in what it described as its latest action against a vessel in international waters allegedly tied to drug trafficking.

United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees US military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said three men died in Friday’s strike. It characterised the mission as a “lethal kinetic strike” carried out in a part of the Pacific Ocean known as a “known narco-trafficking route”.

However, the military did not present any public evidence to support its assertion that those killed were involved in drug trafficking.

A brief video clip, said to show the attack, was posted on social media by SOUTHCOM. The footage appears to show a stationary boat fitted with outboard engines erupting into flames after being hit by US fire, before drifting across the water.

In a statement posted online, the command said: “On Feb. 20, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known…”

On Feb. 20, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known… pic.twitter.com/PzWQFfNgHm

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) February 21, 2026

Friday’s incident brings the reported death toll from vessel strikes conducted under President Donald Trump’s administration in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean to at least 148 people. The deaths stem from roughly 43 US military attacks carried out since early September.

The campaign has drawn mounting criticism across Latin America. Regional leaders, along with legal scholars and human rights advocates, have questioned its legality, arguing that US forces are conducting extrajudicial killings in international waters beyond Washington’s jurisdiction.

Earlier this week, United States Southern Command said it had launched three separate strikes on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing a total of 11 people.

Ben Saul, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, said the military’s public comments effectively amounted to an admission of the “murder of civilians at sea.”

“US leaders must be held accountable by US or international justice,” Saul said.

Senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration — including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and US Admiral Frank Bradley — have also come under scrutiny over reports that the first vessel strike in September 2025 was followed by a second attack that allegedly killed survivors who were clinging to wreckage in the water.