Last September 2nd, A boat suspected of operating for drug trafficking was bombed by US forces in Caribbean waters. It was about first attack related to the naval fleet that the president donald trump ordered deployment for drug interdiction work. That day, the president himself reported that “11 terrorists” died. However, today it is known that two people survived and were killed minutes after the first attack. The case has opened one of the largest military and legal controversies in USA so far in 2025.
“Early this morning, under my orders, the United States Armed Forces conducted a kinetic attack against narcoterrorists of the Aragua Train positively identified in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility (Southern Command)”wrote trump.
Around the World Newsletter
He leader said that “The attack occurred while the terrorists were in international waters transporting illegal narcotics bound for the United States”and “caused the death of 11 terrorists.”
Along with your message, Trump published a video recorded from a surveillance aircraft where the attack on the boat was observed, which ended up engulfed in a fireball.
According to a scoop published Friday by The Washington Post, when the fire produced by the first attack dissipated, commanders observed that at least two people were still alive, clinging to the remains of the boat. So, The order was given to launch a second attack against those survivors.
Why did they do it? The Washington Post indicates that the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, had given a verbal order not to leave people alive in the attacks on vessels suspected of drug smuggling, So when the special operations team observed that there were two people alive clinging to the remains of the recently attacked boat, a second offensive came that killed them.
CNN explained that Hegseth’s order was given before the operation. What is not clear is whether he learned that there were survivors after the first attack.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addresses senior military officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Sept. 30, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/AFP).
/
In a statement Friday, Hegseth rejected the Post’s reporting and He said the information was “invented and inflammatory.”
He also defended the military actions and maintained that officers had made clear in all operations that the bombings of ships were designed to be “lethal, kinetic attacks.”
“Our current operations in the Caribbean are legal under both US and international law, and all actions comply with the law of armed conflict, and are approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, throughout the chain of command,” assured Hegseth without referring directly to the version of the second attack.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting on December 2, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP).
/
On Sunday, Trump expressed his confidence in Hegseth to reporters. The president suggested that “I would not have wanted” a second attack that killed the survivors, before reiterating that he believed the Secretary of War had denied that version of the attack.
The president even declared that “Pete (Hegseth) said he didn’t order the deaths of those two men… And I believe him”.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a printout of a November 2021 New York Times article on the health of former US President Joe Biden, December 1, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP).
/
But things took a turn on Monday when White House press secretary Karoline Leavittacknowledged that there was a second attack and that this was ordered by Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, who leads the United States Special Operations Command. He added that he acted “within his authority and in accordance with the law in directing the attack to ensure that the ship was destroyed and the threat to the United States eliminated.”
Leavitt stated that Secretary Hegseth was who “authorized Admiral Bradley to carry out these attacks.”
The press secretary refused to answer when asked what law authorizes not leaving survivors in an attack on the high seas.
That same Monday, Hegseth reiterated his support for Bradley.
“Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and he has my 100% support. I stand with him and the combat decisions he has made, on the September 2 mission and all the others since then”wrote in X.
Bradley is expected to appear Thursday at a confidential briefing with lawmakers on committees that oversee the military.
Since the large military deployment was ordered in the Caribbean, near Venezuela, 21 attacks have been carried out against vessels suspected of transporting drugs, in which 82 people have died.
War crime?
The first ship attacked by US forces in the Caribbean was transporting drugs and 11 people died, Trump said.
According to experts consulted by the AP agency, The US military would have committed a crime if it killed two survivors of a first attack. They argued that it does not matter if the country is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, as the Trump administration claims.
“I can’t imagine anyone, under any circumstances, believing it is appropriate to kill people clinging to a boat in the water.”Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force attorney and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, told the AP. “That is clearly illegal.”
Schmitt reaffirmed that a second attack that kills survivors is illegal under any circumstances.
He stressed that the United States armed conflict against Al Qaeda received the support of the UN Security Council, NATO and its allies. In the case of cartels this has not been the case.
So, he indicated, if the United States is not in an armed conflict, that means that with its action it has violated international law referring to human rights.
“Deadly force can only be used in circumstances of imminent threat, and that was not the case,” Schmitt said.
Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group and former State Department lawyer, told the AP that The United States is not in an armed conflict with drug cartels.
“The term for a premeditated murder outside of an armed conflict is murder.”Finucane said. He added that US military personnel could be prosecuted in US courts.
The AP maintained that the Pentagon manual on the Laws of War describes a scenario similar to the 9/2 attack when discussing when service members should refuse to carry out illegal orders.
“For example, orders to shoot castaways would be clearly illegal,” the manual says.
Congress demands answers
View of the United States Capitol in Washington DC, on November 5, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP).
/
Several important committees of the United States Congress have sent requests for information and are preparing sessions for the coming days in relation to the attack and the possibility that it constituted a war crime.
Additionally, a senior Republican congressman and Democrats suggested Sunday that the U.S. military may have committed a war crime.
“Obviously, if that happened, it would be very serious, and I agree that it would be an illegal act,” said the representative Mike TurnerRepublican of Ohio and former chairman of the Intelligence Committee, on CBS’s Face the Nation.
For his part, the senator Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, told CBS that If the report was correct, the attack “rises to the level of a war crime.”
While on CNN, when asked if he believed that a second attack to kill survivors constituted a war crime, Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat from Arizona, responded: “It seems that way.”
The senator Chuck Schumer Democrat from New York and minority leader, called on Hegseth to release “the complete, unedited tapes of the attacks so that the American people can see for themselves.”
