It was the first time Americans had carried out so many attacks on the same day, CNN reported, as part of Donald Trump's accelerated campaign against boats involved in drug trafficking. In total, there have been 13 such attacks since the beginning of September. Over 50 people died, including 14 during Monday's operation alone.
“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on four Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) ships trafficking narcotics in the eastern Pacific,” wrote the US Secretary of Defense on X. He also reported that the ships were known to the United States intelligence services and sailed along known drug smuggling routes.
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How many people died in the recent attacks?
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What did the US Secretary of Defense say about narcoterrorism?
US Secretary of Defense: We will hunt them
Pete Hegseth posted a video in his post that shows two boats moments before the attack in the eastern Pacific. “All strikes took place in international waters and no US forces were harmed,” he stressed. He also added that one of the people on the boat survived the attack, and the Mexican services took over the responsibility for the rescue operation.
“The Department has spent over two decades defending other homelands. Now we are defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than al-Qaeda and will be treated the same. We will track them, then hunt them down and kill them,” concluded Pete Hegseth.
The first seven attacks as part of the action announced by Trump took place in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, the last five took place in the waters of the Pacific. After one of them, the US Secretary of Defense announced: “Narco-terrorists who intend to bring poison to our shores will not find a safe haven anywhere in our hemisphere,” CNN reminds.
