Experts say obscuring plane’s military identity would constitute a war crime
The US aircraft that carried out the first airstrike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean was reportedly disguised as a civilian plane – a possible war crime.
The New York Times reported that the aircraft had been painted to obscure its military identity, and its munitions were hidden inside its fuselage rather than visible under its wings.
The 2 September attack on a small boat last year killed 11 Venezuelans, including two survivors from the first strike who were clinging to wreckage in the water when they were bombed a second time. The Venezuelan government denied that the dead men had been gang members, and Washington presented no proof they were involved in drug smuggling.
The Trump administration went on to kill more than 120 people in 35 separate attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, in what it said was a counter-narcotics campaign in the run-up to this month’s direct attack on Venezuela.
