US military says it struck suspected drug-trafficking vessel, 4 killed

The US military conducted a lethal strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean on September 19, killing four individuals, according to a report by the Times of India. The operation, carried out by Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere under the direction of Southern Command, targeted a go-fast boat operating along established narco-trafficking routes.

US Southern Command confirmed that the vessel was actively involved in narco-trafficking. This strike is part of a broader campaign against "narco-terrorists" launched last year by the Trump administration. Rights groups have criticized these operations as extrajudicial killings. The latest strike brings the reported death toll from US military attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean to at least 231 people across 69 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting groups it labels "narcoterrorists" nearly a year ago.

Brief written by urgent.news from Times of India's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.