This combination screen grabs from a video posted by US Southern Command (Southcom) X account on December 15, 2025 shows what the US military says are lethal strikes on three separate alleged narco-trafficking vessels (top) as they get hit (middle and bottom) in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Dec. 15, 2025.
Strikes on three alleged narco-trafficking vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed eight people on Monday, according to the U.S. military, as part of an ongoing campaign that has ended more than 90 lives.
"Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking," U.S. Southern Command said in a post on X, adding that "a total of eight male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions-three in the first vessel, two in the second and three in the third."
The post includes video footage of three separate boats floating in water before they are each hit by strikes.
Since early September, the U.S. military under Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has targeted alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, destroying at least 26 vessels and killing at least 95 people.
The strikes have been accompanied by a massive U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that includes the world's largest aircraft carrier and a slew of other warships, with U.S. President Trump insisting the goal is combatting narco-trafficking while Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he suspects it is a pretext for regime change in Caracas.
During one of the first strikes, survivors of an initial attack on a boat were killed after the U.S. launched a second strike on the vessel, a controversial move that has generated accusations of a possible war crime.
Hegseth has maintained he did not order a second strike, instead attributing it to U.S. Admiral Frank Bradley.
