4 killed in latest US strike on alleged drug boat in Eastern Pacific: Hegseth
Four people were killed in the latest U.S. military airstrike on an alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a social media post.
It follows strikes against four alleged drug vessels in the Eastern Pacific on Monday that killed 14 people, according to Hegseth.
Overall, this marks the 14th such strike carried out by the U.S. since the attacks began on Sept. 2, targeting alleged drug boats in the Pacific and Caribbean and killing more than 60 people total.
In announcing the latest strike on Wednesday, Hegseth said that, at the direction of President Donald Trump, the Defense Department "carried out a lethal kinetic strike on yet another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization in the Eastern Pacific."
"This vessel, like all the others, was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics," he continued.
Four men alleged to be "narco-terrorists" on board the vessel were killed, according to Hegseth, who posted a video of the strike that was labeled "unclassified."
Hegseth did not say where the boat had originated.
Hegseth's announcement of the latest strike came the same day the Trump administration briefed more than a dozen senators on the military campaign off the coast of Venezuela -- but invited only Republicans, according to a top Democrat who called the move "indefensible and dangerous."
Excluding lawmakers because of their political party is a major departure from protocol. Lawmakers rely on details about military and intelligence operations -- many of them classified -- to do their job overseeing Pentagon policy and its massive $1 trillion budget.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on U.S. military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous," Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, of Virginia, said in a statement. "Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party. For any administration to treat them that way erodes our national security and flies in the face of Congress’ constitutional obligation to oversee matters of war and peace."
ABC News' Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
