US Southern Command said on Sunday that its forces blew up an alleged drug-running boat in the Caribbean Sea as the US bombing campaign targeting small vessels in the waters of Latin America continues.
SOUTHCOM offered no evidence to back up its claim that the boat was carrying drugs, something the Pentagon has never done for any of the boats it has blown up. The command said the strike killed three people, whom it labeled “narco-terrorists,” a term employed by the Trump administration in an attempt to justify the extrajudicial executions at sea.
According to a count from The Intercept, the latest strike brings the total number of boats that have been destroyed to 54, and the number of people killed to at least 181. All of the dead were civilians since they were operating civilian vessels, were not engaged in combat, and didn’t pose any threat to the US at the time of the strikes.
Amid the very shaky ceasefire between the US and Iran, the US has dramatically ramped up its bombing campaign against small boats, blowing up five in the Eastern Pacific Ocean within five days from April 11 to April 15.
The US has also increased its airstrikes in Somalia compared to its rate of strikes in the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran, according to press releases from US Africa Command. So far this year, the US has launched at least 56 airstrikes in Somalia, but the war gains virtually no coverage in the US media.
