A series of US attacks on suspected drug ships in the eastern Pacific killed 14 suspected drug traffickers and left one survivor, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday.
In a post on X, Hegseth said that Mexican authorities have taken over the search and rescue operation for the sole survivor of the three attacks, which occurred on Monday.
“The four ships were known to our intelligence apparatus to be transiting known drug trafficking routes and transporting narcotics,” Hegseth said, without providing any evidence.
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But Hegseth published a roughly 30-second video that appeared to show two vessels next to each other in the water before they exploded. Another part of the video shows a vessel moving through the water and then exploding.
The attacks in the Pacific come amid an increase in the US military presence in the Caribbean, which includes guided-missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and thousands of troops. The US government ordered the Ford aircraft carrier strike group to be sent to the region, with it expected to arrive in the Caribbean in the coming weeks.
