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War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday pushed for a broader campaign against drug-linked terrorists, saying US forces have conducted another attack on a narco-terrorist ship in the Caribbean.
Hegseth said that three suspected smugglers were killed in the attack, and said that it was carried out “at the direction of President Trump”.
“Today, the War Department conducted a deadly attack on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a designated terrorist organization (DTO) in the Caribbean,” Hegseth wrote on X.
He added: “This ship – like every other – was involved in illicit drug trafficking according to our intelligence, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and was carrying narcotics.”
US attacks another alleged drug smuggling boat near Venezuela, killing 4
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks during a joint press conference with Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in Tokyo on October 29, 2025. (Eugene Hoshiko/Pool/AFP)
“These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans domestically – and they will not succeed,” Hegseth said, vowing that the U.S. military will treat them the same way 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-terrorist groups in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September, part of what Hegseth called an ongoing “maritime offensive” against international cartels.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that the US conducted a deadly attack on a ship operated by alleged narco-terrorists in the Caribbean Sea on October 24, 2025. (War Department)
The US military has killed at least 64 people in these operations so far, according to defense officials familiar with the operation.
Hegseth says army launches another attack on boat carrying alleged narco-terrorists
President Donald Trump has defended the attacks as a draconian measure to disrupt the flow of drugs into the United States, arguing that the cartels have evolved into international terrorist organizations and that the US is engaged in “armed conflict” with them under the same authority implemented after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The White House has rejected calls from lawmakers demanding more transparency on the legal reasoning behind the operation — including which groups are being targeted and how the force is authorized.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth briefing reporters during a news conference. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
Senate Democrats renewed their call for answers on Friday by sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Hegseth, urging the administration to disclose its legal justification and the list of entities deemed targeted under the president’s directive.
“We also request that you provide us with all legal opinions related to these attacks and a list of the groups or other entities the President has identified as targets,” the senators wrote.
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The letter – signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and several senior Democrats including Senators Jack Reed and Jeanne Shaheen – accuses the administration of selectively releasing conflicting information to some lawmakers and 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 attacks and to identify which cartels the administration has formally labeled as terrorist organizations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
