Congress probes report US targeted ‘drug boat’ strike survivors
Politicians from both parties raised the possibility of war crimes as Donald Trump said he ‘wouldn’t have wanted’ a second strike that reportedly killed two survivors in the water.
The US congress has launched inquiries and members of both parties raised the possibility of war crimes after a report that the US targeted survivors of a strike on an alleged drug boat.
The Republican-led armed services committees in the House and Senate said this weekend they were opening bipartisan inquiries after the Washington Post reported on a September 2 attack on a boat in the Caribbean. In that attack, the Post said, a second strike was ordered to kill two survivors in the water.
The Wall Street Journal hasn’t independently confirmed the Washington Post report.
On Sunday (Monday AEDT), several members of congress stressed that they didn’t know what happened, but said that the incident as described was concerning.
Republican Don Bacon, who sits on the House armed services committee, told ABC that if the strike occurred as the article said, “that is a violation of the law of war. When people want to surrender, you don’t kill them, and they have to pose an imminent threat. It’s hard to believe that two people on a raft, trying to survive, would pose an imminent threat.”
Republican Mike Turner a former chairman of the House intelligence committee, also raised concerns. “Obviously if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that would be an illegal act,” he told CBS.
And Democrat Tim Kaine, who serves on the Senate armed services committee, said the actions rise “to the level of a war crime if it’s true”. The Pentagon declined to comment.
In a post on X on Friday responding to the initial Washington Post report, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth didn’t directly address whether the incident occurred.
“As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes’,” he wrote, adding: “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict.”
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that his administration would look into the report. “I would not have wanted that, a second strike,” Mr Trump added.
“The first strike was very lethal, it was fine.” Mr Trump said Mr Hegseth had said the second strike didn’t happen.
The leaders of the armed services committees in congress said they had requested additional information from the Pentagon about the incident.
“This committee is committed to providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defence’s military operations in the Caribbean,” Mike Rogers and Adam Smith, the top Republican and Democrat on the House committee, said in a joint statement.
“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”
Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate armed services committee, and Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, said on Friday that it had asked the Pentagon for more information.
The committee, they said, “has directed inquiries to the department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances”.
Since September, the US has carried out more than 20 strikes against boats that it says are carrying drugs, which have so far killed more than 80 people.
Senators on both sides of the aisle in October pressed the Pentagon’s top lawyer in a closed-door meeting to provide a better legal explanation for striking alleged Latin American drug boats in the Caribbean.
Venezuela said on Sunday it would create a committee to investigate the US boat-strike deaths.
The Wall Street Journal
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