The U.S. military said that it struck an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, killing three people.
U.S. Southern Command said the strike in the eastern Pacific was against a boat that was traveling along a drug trafficking route.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the military said.
U.S. Southern Command said earlier this week that the military hit three boats on Monday, killing 11 people, in the Pacific and Caribbean.
Since September, the military has conducted strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that it alleges are involved in drug trafficking, which has been criticized by some members of Congress as legally questionable.
Before the strike Friday, there had been at least 41 boat strikes that have killed at least 134 people, according to statements from the Department of Defense tracked by NBC News.
The Trump administration claims that the strikes are against “designated terrorist organizations” that are smuggling drugs.
The military has not provided evidence to support its allegations about the boats, the people on board, the cargo or the number of people killed or injured.
In January, family members of two Trinidadian men who were killed in a U.S. strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in October sued the U.S. government over their deaths.
It was the first wrongful death suit filed in connection with the military strikes. The suit alleges that the government carried out extrajudicial killings. The lawsuit says the men killed were fishing and were returning home when their boat was struck. A spokesperson for the Pentagon said at the time that it does not comment on ongoing litigation.
