The United States Armed Forces released images of a new attack on three vessels allegedly involved in international drug trafficking. A video posted by Southern Command on social media shows the boats sailing in close formation, which is unusual, and the military said they were in a convoy along known narcotics trafficking routes.
According to the statement, they “had transferred narcotics between the three vessels before the attacks”, but no evidence of this transport was presented. The attacks took place on Tuesday, but the images were only released yesterday.
The military said three people died when the first boat was hit, while people on the other two boats jumped overboard and distanced themselves from the vessels before being attacked. Southern Command immediately informed the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search and rescue efforts.
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The statement from US Southern Command, which oversees the South American area, did not reveal where the attacks took place. Previous attacks have been made in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.
According to Politico, calling in the Coast Guard is a change in pattern, as the US Army has come under heavy scrutiny after US forces killed the survivors of an attack in early September, with a subsequent attack on the damaged boat.
Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts have said the military committed a crime, while the Trump administration and some Republican lawmakers say the subsequent attack was legal.
The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat attacks to 33 and the death toll to at least 110 since the beginning of September, according to figures announced by the Trump administration.
