Lawmakers probe Trump administration Caribbean strikes after Hegseth report

Top Armed Services lawmakers are launching inquiries into the Trump administration’s lethal strikes in the Caribbean following a Washington Post report alleging that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. forces to kill anyone who survived a Sept. 2 strike on an alleged narcotics vessel.

“We will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in a joint statement. 

House Armed Services Committee leaders announced a parallel review, saying they are seeking “a full accounting” of the operation.

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“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region,” said Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and ranking Democrat Adam Smith, D-Wash. 

They said the committee is pursuing bipartisan oversight.

The Washington Post report, published Friday, cites unnamed individuals who claim Hegseth “gave a spoken directive” to “kill everybody” aboard a vessel U.S. intelligence believed was carrying narcotics in the Caribbean Sea. A Joint Special Operations commander overseeing that Sept. 2 mission “ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions” once two survivors were seen in the water after the initial blast, according to the report. 

Fox News has not independently verified the Post’s reporting.

Some lawmakers cast doubt on the account and stressed they have not been briefed on any order resembling what was described.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired Air Force brigadier general who has criticized Pentagon leadership on unrelated issues, said he is skeptical such an order would have been issued.

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“Secretary of Defense Hegseth denies it. We should get to the truth,” Bacon said on ABC. “I don’t think he would be foolish enough to make this decision to say, ‘Kill everybody, kill the survivors,’ because that’s a clear violation of the law of war. So, I’m very suspicious that he would’ve done something like that because it would go against common sense.”

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the former House Intelligence Committee chairman, made a similar point Sunday.

“If that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that would be an illegal act,” he said on CBS, adding that the claim “is completely outside of anything that’s been discussed with Congress.”

The Post reported that the Sept. 2 operation — the first in a string of high-tempo strikes targeting alleged Venezuelan and Colombian narcotics networks — left two survivors clinging to the wreckage before a follow-on munition was employed. The Pentagon publicly reported that 11 suspected narco-traffickers were killed in the incident.

Hegseth issued a forceful denial of the story, calling it “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory.”

“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 on X. “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”

The Pentagon declined to provide any additional context when asked by Fox News.

Turner said over the weekend that nothing resembling the reported follow-on strike has been described in congressional after-action briefings to date.

 “There are very serious concerns in Congress about the attacks on the so-called drug boats down in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the legal justification that’s been provided,” he said. “But this is completely outside of anything that’s been discussed with Congress, and there is an ongoing investigation.”

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Since September, U.S. forces have conducted at least two dozen strikes against alleged maritime narcotics traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing roughly 80 individuals linked — according to the administration — to designated Venezuelan and Colombian criminal organizations. Senior officials have argued the operations are necessary to disrupt what they describe as “narco-terrorist” groups with ties to Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

The escalated tempo comes as the Trump administration increases pressure on Maduro. 

President Donald Trump warned in the past week that commercial airlines “should consider Venezuela’s airspace closed,” a directive that aviation and defense analysts note could precede strikes deeper into Venezuelan territory if the administration believes Maduro-aligned groups pose an expanding threat.