US kills three in attack on alleged drug boats, searches for survivors 

The United States military has killed at least three people in yet another attack on alleged drug smuggling boats, and ordered the country’s Coast Guard to launch a search for survivors.

The statement by US Southern Command on Wednesday did not reveal where the attacks occurred. Previous attacks have been in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

A video posted by the Southern Command on social media shows the boats traveling in a close formation, and the military said they were in a convoy along known narco-trafficking routes and “had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes”.

The military did not provide evidence to back up the claim.

“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement,” it said. “The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it added.

The military said it had notified the Coast Guard to “activate the Search and Rescue system”. It did not offer more details about the fate of those aboard the other boats.

The request for a rescue effort was notable because the US military drew heavy scrutiny after it killed the survivors of an attack in early September with a follow-up strike to their disabled boat.

Some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the military committed a crime, while the administration of US President Donald Trump and some Republican lawmakers say the follow-up strike was legal.

The Reuters news agency, citing a US official, said eight people had abandoned their vessels and were being searched for in the Pacific Ocean.

The US Coast Guard also told the agency it had deployed a C-130 aircraft to look for survivors and was working with vessels in the area.

This is not the first time there have been survivors of a US strike under the Trump administration. In October, two survivors were repatriated to their home countries after surviving a US military strike.

Later ​that month, Mexican authorities launched a search and rescue effort after ‌another US strike left a survivor. That individual was not found.

The attacks on Wednesday bring the total number of known boat strikes to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 110 since early September, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US and asserted that Washington is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

His administration has also built up military forces in the region, including the deployment of more than 15,000 troops, as part of an escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who it accuses of narco-terrorism.

Caracas denies any involvement in drug trafficking and insists that Washington is seeking to overthrow Maduro to seize the country’s oil reserves, which are the world’s largest.

Trump said on Monday ‌the US had “hit” an area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs, marking the first known time Washington has carried out land operations in Venezuela.

Officials said the land strike was ‍not carried out by the US military and Trump has previously said he has authorised the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.