US kills 14 in strikes on four suspected drug ships

US forces have killed 14 people in strikes on four suspected drug vessels in the Pacific, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said.

He said one survivor was rescued by a Mexican search and rescue team.

It is the latest in a series of attacks on boats that the US says have been carrying drugs in both the Pacific and the Caribbean.

The latest strikes in the eastern Pacific, which Hegsett said came Monday at the direction of President Donald Trump, mark an escalation in what he says is a campaign to target drug traffickers.

At least 57 people have already been killed in the strikes, leading to rising tensions between the US and the governments of both Colombia and Venezuela.

Most of them have been struck off the coast of South America, in the Caribbean, but recently there have been strikes in the Pacific Ocean as well.

The US strikes drew condemnation in the region and experts questioned their legality. Members of the US Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have also expressed concern and questioned the president’s authority to order them.

In a statement to X, Hegsett said the four vessels struck on Monday “were known to our intelligence apparatus, traversing known drug-trafficking and drug-carrying routes.”

Hegseth added that eight “narco-terrorists” were killed in the first strike. Four and three were killed in the next two strikes.

One person survived the blows. According to Hegseth, Mexican search and rescue authorities “took over the case and took responsibility for coordinating the rescue.”

The survivor’s condition or current whereabouts are unclear.

Hegseth’s post included videos of what appeared to be several ships catching fire after being hit by US munitions.

“The department has spent more than two decades protecting other homelands,” Hegseth wrote. “Now we protect our own.”

At least four of the strikes so far have taken place in the Pacific Ocean, which is a much more significant drug-trafficking corridor, and the rest have taken place in the Caribbean.

President Trump has said he has the legal authority to continue bombing boats in international waters, but suggested last week that he might seek congressional approval if the campaign were expanded to include targets on land.

Trump said he was “absolutely ready” to strike ground targets, which would mark a major escalation in the campaign.

However, the strikes have drawn criticism from international law experts and both the Venezuelan and Colombian governments.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newsday program last week, Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo said the strikes were “disproportionate and outside international law”.

Jaramillo said the people on the ships had “no opportunity to defend themselves” and were struck “without trial” and “without due process”.

The strikes also come amid rising tensions between the two governments. The US has imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, accusing him of failing to curb drug trafficking and allowing cartels to “thrive”.

The US deployed troops, aircraft and naval vessels to the Caribbean last week as well ordered the world’s largest warship – the USS Gerald R Ford – to the area.

Trump has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being the leader of a drug-trafficking organization, which he denies, and there are fears in Venezuela that the US military build-up is aimed at destabilizing and ousting Maduro’s government.