It is the 22nd strike the U.S. military has carried out against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that the Trump administration claimed were trafficking drugs.
There were four casualties in Thursday’s strike, according to the social media post, bringing the death toll of the campaign to at least 87 people.
In a video that accompanied the announcement, a small boat can be seen moving across the water before it is suddenly consumed by a large explosion. The video then zooms out to show the boat covered in flames and billowing smoke.
The strike was conducted the same day Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley appeared for a series of closed-door classified briefings at the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers began an investigation into the very first strike carried out by the military on Sept. 2. The sessions came after a report that Bradley ordered a follow-on attack that killed the survivors.
Lawmakers offered differing accounts of what they saw on the video.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said he saw the survivors “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.”
