WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The U.S. military launched a strike on another boat accused of carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, killing four people in announced in the past few days.
The operation is the latest in a series of that the Trump administration says were trafficking drugs in Latin American waters, a campaign that began more than seven months ago and continues even as the military has been preoccupied with .
The latest strike brings the death toll to 175 since the operations began in early September. The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search for one survivor from an attack Saturday.
U.S. Southern Command on social media Tuesday showing a vessel bobbing in the water before being struck by a projectile and exploding. The military earlier said it struck on Saturday and on Monday.
The military said all the vessels were 鈥渙perated by Designated Terrorist Organizations鈥� and that intelligence confirmed they 鈥渨ere transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations鈥� but did not provide evidence.
President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in 鈥渁rmed conflict鈥� with cartels in Latin America and has as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing 鈥渘arcoterrorists.鈥�
The strikes began months ahead of the U.S. raid in January that . He was brought to New York to and has pleaded not guilty.
Critics of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. , where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.
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