U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) reported that American forces killed two individuals described as “narco-terrorists” during a strike on a suspected drug trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Friday. The military unit announced the operation by releasing a video on social platform X showing the boat exploding.
Southcom commander General Francis L. Donovan ordered the attack under the Pentagon’s ongoing mission to target vessels on known drug smuggling routes. That effort, named Operation Southern Sphere, was launched last fall.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” Southcom stated on X. “Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.”
The Pentagon carried out its 50th boat strike under Operation Southern Sphere earlier this month. To date, these attacks have resulted in the deaths of roughly 180 alleged narco-terrorists. Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced plans to deploy unmanned vessels for these counter-narcotics missions.
President Trump has publicly endorsed the strikes, arguing they will reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the United States from the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. In a letter to Congress last fall, Trump declared that the U.S. is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict with these designated terror organizations.”
The operations have faced criticism from congressional Democrats, who have raised concerns about a lack of transparency regarding the scope of the strikes and the administration’s legal justification for them. This latest attack occurs as Trump continues to enforce a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing conflict with Iran. The blockade remains in effect during an indefinite ceasefire period, with U.S. forces continuing to block Iranian ports and interdict some vessels in the critical waterway. For more on related tensions, see our coverage of Trump's indefinite extension of the Iran ceasefire while maintaining the military blockade.
The administration’s broader military posture in the Middle East has also drawn scrutiny. A recent analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warned that the U.S. has depleted key missile stockpiles during the Iran campaign, raising concerns about readiness in the Pacific theater. Read the full CSIS analysis on U.S. missile stockpile depletion and Pacific readiness concerns.
Meanwhile, efforts in Congress to limit the president’s military authority regarding Iran have stalled. The Senate GOP recently blocked a fifth attempt to curb Trump's Iran military authority, as reported in our article on the Senate GOP's fifth block of efforts to limit Trump's Iran military authority.
