Five killed as US military strikes vessel in Eastern Pacific

WASHINGTON - The US military said on Tuesday five people were killed ​in a strike on a vessel ‌in the Eastern Pacific, the latest in a series of attacks that Washington says targets "narco-terrorists" but human rights experts condemn as extrajudicial killings.

The US Southern Command "executed a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific," it said on X.

It cited what it called "confirmed intelligence" to allege the vessel was actively involved in drug trafficking, without providing more details.

It said five people were killed, describing them as "narco-terrorists."

President Donald ​Trump's administration has said the vessels it has struck since September 2025 were transporting narcotics.

US strikes on such ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have killed more than ​230 people.

Human ​Rights Watch, ⁠Amnesty International and independent UN experts have called the strikes unlawful extrajudicial ​killings while the American Civil ⁠Liberties ​Union has cast assertions by Trump's administration against those it targets as "unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims."

-Kanishka Singh, Bhargav Acharya and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Kate Mayberry/Reuters