The United States military has announced the killing of five more individuals during maritime strikes targeting alleged drug smuggling vessels in the Pacific Ocean, pushing the total death toll from the controversial campaign to over one hundred.
Latest Strikes Escalate Fatal Campaign
According to a statement posted on X by the US Southern Command on 18 December 2025, the latest operation struck two vessels in international waters. The command asserted the boats were "engaged in narco-trafficking operations." The attack resulted in three fatalities on the first vessel and two on the second.
This brings the overall number of people killed since the campaign began to 104, based on an Agence France-Presse tally of official data. The Trump administration has conducted these strikes in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September of this year.
Legal and Ethical Questions Mount
The ongoing operation has sparked significant debate, as the Pentagon has not publicly provided evidence linking the targeted boats to drug trafficking. This lack of transparency has prompted serious questions about the operations' legality under international law.
Criticism intensified following revelations about a September incident, where the US military launched a second strike that killed survivors of an initial attack on the same vessel. This action generated accusations of a potential war crime from human rights observers and legal experts.
Congressional Scrutiny and Broader Tensions
The use of military force for anti-drug operations, coupled with President Trump's warnings about a potential land strike in Venezuela, has ignited a constitutional debate. Central to this is whether the administration should seek formal authorisation from the US Congress for such hostilities.
This debate reached the House of Representatives on Wednesday, where two Democratic-sponsored resolutions were rejected. These resolutions aimed to halt the maritime strikes and any "hostilities in or against Venezuela" without congressional approval, highlighting the deep political divisions surrounding the strategy.
The campaign continues without clear oversight, as the Pentagon has also declined to release full video footage of a previous Caribbean strike that killed two people, further fuelling demands for accountability and a reassessment of the policy's human cost.
