Trump team faces mounting pressure as members of Congress allege that the deadly attack was unlawful<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US Democrats<\/a> on Sunday pushed the Trump administration<\/a> to release video of a second strike on an alleged drug boat incapacitated in the Caribbean, continuing to escalate pressure on the Pentagon amid accusations the attack was unlawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eleven people died in the 2 September attack<\/a>, including two men killed in a follow-up strike as they reportedly clung to wreckage<\/a> for an hour. That killing has been met with intense scrutiny and accusations of war crimes after the Washington Post reported<\/a> defense secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to \u201ckill them all\u201d<\/a>. Adm Frank Bradley of the US navy, who oversaw the attack, told lawmakers on Thursday there was no such order<\/a> \u2013 and the Pentagon has defended the legality of the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts have said the defense is legally shaky<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the Pentagon and our defense secretary are so proud of what they\u2019re doing, let the American people see that video,\u201d Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, said during an interview on Sunday on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet the American people see two people standing on a capsized boat, or sitting on a capsized boat, and deliberately killed and decide for themselves whether they\u2019re proud of what the country is doing. I can\u2019t imagine people would be proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donald Trump<\/a> has said he has no problem releasing the video. But, despite the president\u2019s statement, Hegseth did not commit to doing so on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re reviewing the process, and we\u2019ll see,\u201d he said on Saturday<\/a>, adding that the Pentagon wanted to ensure sensitive information was not compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut had previously said the video was \u201cone of the most troubling scenes I\u2019ve ever seen in my time in public service\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion \u2013 with a destroyed vessel \u2013 who were killed by the United States,\u201d said Himes, who is the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Representative Adam Smith of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee, said on Sunday it was \u201cpretty clear they don\u2019t want to release this video\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey don\u2019t want people to see it because it\u2019s very, very difficult to justify,\u201d he said during an interview on Sunday on ABC\u2019s This Week.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen [the survivors] were finally taken out, they weren\u2019t trying to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated. A tiny portion of it remained, capsized \u2013 the bow of the boat. They had no communications device. Certainly, they were unarmed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, said he personally did not oppose releasing the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not gruesome. I didn\u2019t find it distressing or disturbing. It looks like any number of dozens of strikes we\u2019ve seen on Jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years,\u201d he said on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press<\/a>. \u201cI would trust Secretary Hegseth and his team to make the decision about whether they can declassify and release the video. But again, there\u2019s nothing remarkable on that video in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cotton also defended the legality of the strike, disputing that the two men killed in the second strike were helpless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter what they were doing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were on that boat. That boat was still a valid target. They were not in a state of distress on a plank of wood in the ocean like subsequent survivors were,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n