• The US military killed four men in a strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Eastern Pacific.
• This attack is part of an ongoing counter-narcotics campaign resulting in over 87 deaths since September.
• The operation has drawn scrutiny for previous strikes allegedly targeting survivors of earlier attacks.

The U.S. military reported that it killed four men in a strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Thursday, December 4. The action was ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with the U.S. Southern Command stating that "intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route" according to Reuters, Al Jazeera, and CBS News.

This latest strike is part of a larger counter-narcotics campaign, where the U.S. military has executed at least 22 strikes since September, resulting in the deaths of at least 87 individuals. Many of these operations have been criticized for their aggressiveness, particularly an incident in September involving a follow-up strike on a previously targeted vessel that reportedly killed survivors. As noted by U.S. lawmakers, such actions could be interpreted as war crimes, based on the context presented during a classified briefing on Capitol Hill, according to Le Monde and Anadolu Agency.

Defense Secretary Hegseth faces increasing scrutiny regarding these strikes, especially after revealing a controversial double-strike incident on September 2 that targeted survivors, which has led to accusations of extrajudicial killings. Critics, including Representative Jim Himes, highlighted troubling footage showing these incidents, emphasizing the moral implications and legal framework of such military actions, according to India Times and Al Jazeera.

The stated rationale for these operations centers around combatting narco-terrorism in international waters, as hailed by the Trump administration, attempting to assert that actions taken are well within legal grounds. However, the Pentagon maintains that all decisions made during these operations were within the law, distancing Hegseth from specific orders regarding the strikes on survivors, citing Admiral Frank Bradley as the operational commander, according to CBS News, India Times, and Le Monde.