Hegseth orders another alleged drug boat strike and kills 4

President Donald Trump's administration announced on Thursday night that it had carried out another strike against an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, an operation that killed four people.

U.S. Southern Command, a division of the Department of Defense, announced the operation in a post on X and included a video of the strike. It comes at a time when the administration's strikes against alleged drug runners are facing increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

"On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization," the post reads in part. "Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed."

Since taking office, the Trump administration has conducted roughly 22 strikes, killing more than 80 people. Trump has said the strikes are a matter of national security, but experts have criticized Trump for not providing evidence to substantiate the claim.

The latest strike comes as the Trump administration faces demands for answers after reports emerged that Hegseth ordered the killing of two survivors from a controversial drug vessel bombing.

During a briefing with lawmakers, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, described a video of a Sept. 2 attack in the Caribbean Sea as potentially showing a war crime. Himes stated that the video showed two people clinging to wreckage in the middle of the ocean without weapons, suggesting that targeting these shipwrecked sailors - even if they were involved in drug trafficking - could run afoul of international war laws.