The US military announced that one person survived the attack on the ship and that the Coast Guard had been notified.
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Published February 10, 2026
The US military has notified the US Coast Guard that two people were killed and one survived after an attack on a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said Monday that a “lethal kinetic attack” had been carried out against a vessel it said was involved in drug trafficking, without providing any evidence.
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“Two narco-terrorists were killed and one survived the attack. Following the engagement, US Southcom immediately notified the US Coast Guard to activate search and rescue systems for survivors,” the military said.
Last week, the United States claimed responsibility for an earlier attack in the eastern Pacific that killed two people, making the third such attack on ships that Washington has ordered since U.S. forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a bloody nighttime raid on the capital, Caracas, in early January.
The United States has now carried out some 37 attacks against 39 ships in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing at least 130 people, including the latest killing on Monday, according to monitors and tallies kept by news organizations.
Southcom did not provide details about the medical conditions of the survivors of Monday’s attack or whether the U.S. Coast Guard might rescue them or their chances of survival.
The United States appears undaunted in its pursuit of deadly operations in international waters off the coast of Latin America, even as legal scholars, rights activists, and community leaders accuse the United States of acting as judge, jury, and executioner in cases of suspected drug traffickers and committing extrajudicial killings.
Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration said the initial attack in September 2025 included follow-up attacks that killed survivors clinging to the wreckage of the boat, which has already come under intense scrutiny.
Legal experts said the U.S. military committed a crime if it killed the shipwreck survivors.
Southcom released a 10-second video of the airstrike on Monday. Video shows a small motorized boat appearing in military crosshairs before being hit, causing an explosion seconds later.
Although the ship slowed down, some of the ship’s structure appeared to remain intact after the explosion.
