A US admiral acting under the authority of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a “double-tap” military operation that targeted survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug smuggling boat, the White House said on Monday.
The legality of the Trump administration’s deadly strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific has already been questioned, and reports of the follow-up attack on survivors have triggered further accusations of a possible war crime.
A total of 11 people were killed in the two strikes in early September, the first in a months-long military campaign that has so far left more than 80 dead.
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President Donald Trump’s administration has insisted it was effectively at war with alleged “narco-terrorists”, and the White House said Admiral Frank Bradley, who currently leads US Special Operations Command, had acted legally and properly in ordering the second strike on the survivors.
Bradley “worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.
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