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At least 133 people have been killed in U.S. attacks on ships in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean since September.
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Published February 14, 2026
The US military has attacked a boat in the Caribbean, killing three people, continuing a deadly airstrike that has killed at least 133 people since September 2025.
U.S. forces “conducted a lethal kinetic attack” early Friday morning that killed three people, the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement.
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The US military reiterated its claims, without providing any evidence, that it was targeting suspected drug traffickers and called those killed in the attack “narco-terrorists.”
Southcom released a video of the attack that appears to show a missile attack on the boat, which explodes into flames and obliterates the vessel.
International law and human rights experts have repeatedly said such attacks amount to extrajudicial executions, even when the targets are suspected of involvement in drug trafficking.
Friday’s killings follow Monday’s attack in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which Southcom said struck a ship, killing two people and surviving one.
Southcom said it had notified the U.S. Coast Guard that there were survivors of the attack, but did not provide details about the survivors’ conditions or whether they were rescued or survived.
The first attack by the U.S. military on a ship in international waters, in September 2025, involved a chase that killed survivors clinging to the wreckage of destroyed boats.
U.S. officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the commander of the operation, Adm. Frank Bradley, came under intense scrutiny for ordering a second attack on the survivors.
Legal experts said the U.S. military could be involved in the crime that killed the shipwreck survivors.
The United States has now carried out some 38 attacks against 40 ships in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing at least 133 people, including an attack earlier this week that killed two people, according to monitors and tallies kept by news organizations.
US President Donald Trump said the US was engaged in an “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America, justifying the escalation as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the US.
Legal experts said the United States had no legal right to carry out attacks on the high seas and that those allegedly involved in drug trafficking were entitled to due process under the law.
