May 31, 2026 / 1:22 PM EDT
/ CBS/AP
Add CBS News on Google
The U.S. military said it carried out another strike Saturday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the fourth attack this week and putting the total death toll at 205.U.S. Southern Command announced the strike with its usual language that the vessel was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence for the allegation.It's the latest in a monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.Video released by the military on social media shows a small vessel moving in the ocean before it's hit and engulfed in a fireball.The attack brings the death toll to 205 in a series of U.S. strikes that began in early September, with other attacks announced on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The death toll also rose slightly this week because some people that had been initially reported by the U.S. military as survivors of the strikes have not been found.The Trump administration has declared that the U.S. is at armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the flow of drugs into American communities.U.S. Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top U.S. commander in Latin America. Donovan on Friday also met with Cuban military leaders near the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay.
