The United States military has killed at least five people in yet another attack on alleged drug smuggling boats, and ordered the country’s coastguard to launch a search for survivors.
The statement by US Southern Command on Wednesday did not reveal where the attacks occurred.
Previous attacks have been in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
A video posted by the Southern Command on social media shows the boats travelling in a close formation, and the military said they were in a convoy along known narco-trafficking routes and “had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes”.
The military did not provide evidence to back up the claim.
“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement,” it said. “The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it added.
It later said it carried out another strike on the vessels and that two people were killed in the second strike.
The military said it had notified the US Coast Guard to “activate the Search and Rescue system”.
The request for a rescue effort was notable because the US military drew heavy scrutiny after it killed the survivors of an attack in early September with a follow-up strike on their disabled boat.
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