29-11-2025 (WASHINGTON) The US military executed a second drone strike on September 2, 2025, deliberately targeting and killing two survivors clinging to a burning speedboat in the Caribbean Sea, according to multiple sources familiar with the operation.
The initial attack, authorized by President Donald Trump, hit the vessel off Venezuela’s coast near Trinidad, which officials described as carrying narcoterrorists linked to the Tren de Aragua gang. Surveillance footage showed the boat ablaze and occupants in the water, posing no active threat. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then issued an order to “kill everybody,” sources told The Intercept, leading to the follow-up assault that sank the wreckage and raised the death toll to 11.
Trump later shared an edited video of the first strike on social media, touting it as a blow against drug trafficking without mentioning the survivors. Legal experts, including former Pentagon counsel Sarah Harrison, condemned the action as a violation of international law, arguing it targeted incapacitated individuals hors de combat and amounted to extrajudicial killing of civilians.
Democratic lawmakers, briefed only on a vague plan to clear navigation hazards, expressed outrage over the deception, while the UK suspended intelligence sharing with the US over concerns of complicity. The Pentagon defended the strikes as lawful self-defense against imminent threats, with spokesman Sean Parnell calling them a success in curbing drug flows.
