U.S. Counter-Narcotics Military Operations

U.S. Southern Command said a strike in the Eastern Pacific destroyed an alleged narco‑trafficking boat, killing six men and posting video of the vessel while declining to publicly release evidence it carried drugs; the military said the attack was ordered under Operation Southern Spear by new SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan and was based on intelligence that the boat was transiting known smuggling routes. The blast is the latest in a campaign of more than 40 U.S. boat strikes (some counts put it at 45) in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since early September, bringing the reported death toll to at least 157 — a campaign President Trump has framed as an “armed conflict” and urged regional partners to join even as critics, lawmakers and legal experts question the legality, lack of released evidence and whether the strikes effectively address fentanyl flows.