US carried out three strikes on alleged drug-running boats killing 14, Hegseth says

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth announced that the military carried out three strikes on Monday in the Eastern Pacific against boats suspected of carrying drugs, killing 14 and leaving one survivor.

The announcement, made on social media on Tuesday, marks a continued escalation in the pace of the strikes, which began in early September.

This was the first time multiple strikes were announced in a single day.

Hegseth said Mexican search and rescue authorities "assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue" of the sole survivor, but did not say if that person would stay in their custody or be handed over to the US.

In a strike earlier in October which had two survivors, the US military rescued the pair and later repatriated them to Colombia and Ecuador.

Hegseth posted footage of the strikes on social media, showing two boats moving at speed through the water.

One is visibly laden with a large number of parcels or bundles. Both then suddenly explode, leaving them on fire.

The third strike appears to have been carried out against a pair of boats that were stationary in the water alongside each other.

They appear to be largely empty, with at least two people seen moving before an explosion engulfs both boats.

Hegseth said, "The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics."

The death toll from the 13 disclosed strikes since early September now stands at 57.

In his announcement of the latest strikes, Hegseth also continued to draw parallels between the military's actions against drug trafficking and the war on terrorism following the 11 September 2001 attacks that saw New York's World Trade Centre towers destroyed.

He claimed that cartels "have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same."

US President Donald Trump has also justified the strikes by asserting that Washington is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels and proclaiming the criminal organisations to be unlawful combatants, relying on the same legal authority used by President George W Bush’s administration for the war on terrorism.

However, the Trump administration has shown no evidence to support its claims about the boats, their connection to drug cartels, or even the identity of the people killed in the strikes.