WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has yet to make an announcement. Another deadly attack on a boat He was charged with transporting drugs in the Eastern Pacific and arrived the same day. Aircraft carriers began heading towards the area. In a new expansion of military firepower.
Tuesday’s attack killed two people on the boat, Hegseth said. causing the number of deaths Up to 66 people were killed in at least 16 airstrikes from the Trump administration’s camp in South American waters.
President Donald Trump justified the attack by claiming the United States was participating. “Armed conflict” with drug cartels and claimed the boat was operated by a foreign terrorist organization. The administration has not released any evidence or details.
“We will locate and destroy any and all vessels smuggling drugs into the United States for the purpose of poisoning our people,” Hegseth said.
Lawmakers from both parties are demanding more information from the administration about who is being targeted and the legal legitimacy of the strikes.
Recent attacks are done as follows USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier It set sail from the Mediterranean en route to the Caribbean after Hegseth issued orders to the region more than a week ago. This would add to an already strong buildup of American aircraft, ships and thousands of troops in Latin America.
A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ship’s movements, confirmed that the Ford and the destroyer USS Bainbridge entered the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar on Tuesday.
Ford initially deployed five destroyers, but it’s unclear whether all of them will make it to the Caribbean. Two other destroyers in the Ford Strike Group, USS Winston Churchill and USS Mahan, are currently in the Mediterranean Sea, with Mahan in port in Rota, Spain.
Two other destroyers, USS Forest Sherman and USS Michener, are in the Red Sea, officials said.
In this latest strike, a video posted by Hegseth on social media shows the boat appearing in the water before being blown up, hidden by a gray box. The footage then cuts to a ship engulfed in flames.
