The Pentagon knew there were survivors after a September strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea, yet the U.S. military still carried out a follow-up attack, according to two people familiar with the operation.
The second strike was justified internally as necessary to fully sink the vessel, the two individuals said on Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The Trump administration has maintained that all 11 people aboard the boat were killed.
It remains unclear who specifically ordered the strikes, and whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth played a direct role, one of the people said. Those details have become central as lawmakers launch investigations and try to determine whether U.S. forces acted within the law during the mission.
These questions are expected to surface Thursday during a classified congressional briefing with the commander the Trump administration says ordered the second strike, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley.
The Pentagon did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment regarding the newly reported details of the Sept. 2 operation.
Hegseth is facing mounting scrutiny over the department’s series of strikes targeting alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, especially the follow-up attack that reportedly killed survivors. Some lawmakers and legal experts argue that such an action could violate peacetime legal standards and the laws governing armed conflict.
Hegseth has defended the second strike as a decision made in the “fog of war.” During a Cabinet meeting at the White House this week, he said he did not see any survivors but also acknowledged he “didn’t stick around” for the remainder of the mission.
The defense secretary has also insisted that Bradley, as the operational commander, “made the right call” in ordering the follow-on strike, which he said the admiral “had complete authority to do.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump was asked whether he would release video of the second strike, as top Democratic lawmakers have demanded. “I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’d certainly release. No problem,” he told reporters.
The Trump administration has argued that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, despite the fact that Congress has not passed any authorization for the use of military force specific to that mission or region.
Another strike later in September has prompted the family of a Colombian man to file a formal complaint with the leading human rights body in the Americas, alleging that his death amounted to an extrajudicial killing. The petition, filed by the family of Alejandro Carranza, claims the U.S. military bombed his fishing boat on Sept. 15 in violation of human rights conventions.
The Sept. 2 follow-on strike targeted the first vessel hit in what the Trump administration has described as a counterdrug campaign. That campaign has now grown to more than 20 known strikes and over 80 reported deaths.
The existence of the second strike and the information about survivors were not shared with lawmakers in a classified briefing in September, shortly after the incident, one of the people familiar with the matter said. The details surfaced later, and the Pentagon’s explanation has been widely viewed as unsatisfactory by members of the House and Senate national security committees.
In a rare show of bipartisan oversight, the Armed Services committees in both chambers quickly opened investigations into the strikes, as members from both parties raise concerns.
Bradley is scheduled to appear Thursday in a classified briefing with the committees’ two Republican chairmen and their two ranking Democratic members.
