US military says struck vessel in Caribbean, killing 4

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Southern Command says it 'executed ​a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel'

The US military said on Sunday four people were killed in a ​strike on a vessel in the Caribbean ‌Sea, the latest in a series of attacks that Washington says target “narco-terrorists” but human rights experts condemn as extrajudicial killings.

The ​US Southern Command said on X it “executed ​a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel ⁠operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean.”

It ​cited what it called “confirmed intelligence” to allege the ​vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking, without providing more details.

It added that four people, whom it called “narco-terrorists,” were killed.

President Donald Trump’s administration ​has said the vessels it has struck since ​September 2025 were transporting narcotics.

US strikes on such vessels in ‌the ⁠Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have killed more than 220 people. Experts and rights advocates in the US and abroad have questioned the legality of the strikes.

Human ​Rights Watch, ​Amnesty International ⁠and independent UN experts have called the strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings.

Ben Saul, UN special ​rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, has said there ⁠are “reasonable grounds to believe” such attacks “constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law.”

The American Civil ⁠Liberties ​Union has cast the assertions ​by the Trump administration against those it targets as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”

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