New US strike on alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific kills four as tensions with Venezuela rise

The US military said four people were killed after it attacked another boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

US Southern Command stated on social media that the vessel was operated by narco-terrorists along a known trafficking route. The military didn't provide evidence behind the allegations but posted a video of a boat moving through water before there was an explosion.

The attack brought the total number of known boat strikes to 26 with at least 99 people killed, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration. Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

The administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign. The first attack in early September involved a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday the Pentagon will not publicly release unedited video the strike as questions mounted in Congress about the incident and the overall buildup of US military forces near Venezuela.

On Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate agreed to language in a defence bill that threatened to withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget until he provided unedited video of the strikes, as well as the orders authorising them, to the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services.

House rejects resolutions on military force in Venezuela

The strike came on the same day that House Republicans rejected a pair of Democratic-backed resolutions that would have put a check on President Donald Trump’s power to use military force against drug cartels and the nation of Venezuela.

The legislation would have forced the Trump administration to seek authorisation from Congress before continuing attacks against cartels that it deems to be terrorist organizations in the Western Hemisphere or launching an attack on Venezuela itself.

Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that Trump's aggressions in the region were really because “the president is coveting Venezuelan oil.”

Republican leaders have increasingly expressed support for Trump's campaign, even as it potentially escalates into a direct confrontation with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said earlier Wednesday that he didn't know whether the Trump administration had “publicly stated” that they wanted regime change, but “I would certainly not have a problem if that was their position.”

“Maduro is a cancer on that continent,” he added.

Still, the Trump administration has not sought congressional authorisation for its recent actions in the Caribbean, arguing instead that it can destroy drug-carrying boats just as it would handle terrorist threats against the US.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top national security officials defended the campaign as a successful counter-narcotic effort that has cut into the drug supply entering the US, but did not clue in Congress about its ultimate goals when it comes to Venezuela.