US strikes suspected drug boat in Caribbean, killing 3

DW News · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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The US military on Monday said it carried out another strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing three "narco-terrorists." The US Southern Command said via X that the vessel was operated by a designated terrorist organization and was transiting along "narco-trafficking" routes. The military did not specify the terrorist group it was referring to. No US service members were harmed during the operation, the military said. What to know about US military boat strikes Monday's strike comes after the US military carried out a deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Friday. Since September, the US military has carried out a minimum of 44 strikes and has killed at least 150 "narco-terrorists" in both the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. US President Donald Trump's administration argues the strikes are necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics in the region. Critics have questioned the overall legality of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the US over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India. The United States has designated multiple Latin American drug gangs as terrorist organizations since Trump took office for a second term in January 2025. Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah