War Department launches 15th strike in Trump’s anti-cartel campaign

The U.S. military has launched another strike on what it calls a narco-terror vessel in the Caribbean, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday, underscoring a widening campaign against drug-linked militants.

The attack killed three suspected smugglers, Hegseth said, adding that it was carried out “at the direction of President Trump.”

“Today, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Caribbean,” Hegseth wrote on X.

He continued: “This vessel—like EVERY OTHER—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.”

US STRIKES ANOTHER ALLEGED DRUG-TRAFFICKING BOAT NEAR VENEZUELA, KILLING 4

“These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home — and they will not succeed,” Hegseth added, vowing that the U.S. military will give them the same treatment it did Al Qaeda: “We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.”

Saturday’s announcement marks the 15th known U.S. operation against suspected narco-terror groups in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September, part of what Hegseth has called an ongoing “maritime offensive” against transnational cartels.

The U.S. military has now killed at least 64 people in these operations, according to defense officials familiar with the campaign.

HEGSETH SAYS MILITARY CONDUCTED ANOTHER STRIKE ON BOAT CARRYING ALLEGED NARCO-TERRORISTS

President Donald Trump has defended the strikes as a hardline measure to disrupt the flow of drugs into the United States, arguing that cartels have evolved into transnational terror organizations and that America is engaged in an “armed conflict” with them under the same authority invoked after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The White House has pushed back against calls from lawmakers demanding more transparency on the legal rationale behind the operations — including which groups are being targeted and how force is being authorized.

Senate Democrats renewed their calls for answers on Friday, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Hegseth that urged the administration to disclose its legal justifications and the list of entities deemed targetable under the president’s directive.

“We also request that you provide all legal opinions related to these strikes and a list of the groups or other entities the President has deemed targetable,” the senators wrote.

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The letter — signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and several senior Democrats including Sens. Jack Reed and Jeanne Shaheen — accuses the administration of selectively releasing conflicting information to certain lawmakers while leaving others in the dark.

Separately, the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee released two previously undisclosed letters sent to Hegseth in late September and early October, pressing the Pentagon to outline its legal framework for the strikes and to identify which cartels the administration has formally labeled as terrorist organizations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.