President Donald Trump's administration faced new war crime accusations on Monday after it was revealed that the administration disguised the airplanes it used to bomb at least one alleged drug boat.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration disguised its bomber plane as a civilian plane during the now-infamous "double tap" strike in September that killed 11 people. The Times also reported that the plane's munitions were also hidden inside its fuselage, rather than being visibly displayed on the wings.
The report cites some pictures posted on Reddit by "amateur plane-spotting enthusiasts" that appeared to show "modified 737s, painted white with a blue stripe and with no military markings, at the St. Croix airport in the U.S. Virgin Islands."
Military experts told the NYT that the nonmilitary appearance of the planes could constitute a war crime known as "perfidity."
“Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy,” Retired Maj. Gen. Steven Lepper, a former deputy judge advocate general for the United States Air Force, told the outlet. “If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft, it should not be engaged in combatant activity.”
Since the strike, the military has switched to using "recognizably military aircraft for boat strikes, including MQ-9 Reaper drones," according to the report.