"During the mission, which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said he watched live, the US military struck a suspected drug-smuggling vessel twice. The first strike appeared to kill nine people on the vessel; then the US military launched a second strike on the stricken boat that killed the two remaining survivors, The Washington Post reported last week, citing seven people with knowledge of the strike."
"Hegseth called the Post report, which said the secretary had ordered a military leader to kill everyone onboard, "fake news." "Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict - and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command," Hegseth said Friday."
""Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked," it says, "would be clearly illegal.""
A 1,200-page Pentagon manual says wounded or otherwise hors de combat combatants, including shipwreck survivors, are entitled to fundamental protections and that orders to fire on the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal. A September 2 counter-narcotics strike in the Caribbean reportedly struck a suspected drug-smuggling vessel twice; the first strike appeared to kill nine people and a second strike reportedly killed the two remaining survivors. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth denied ordering the killings and called the report "fake news," defending the lawfulness of the operations. The White House attributed the second-strike decision to Adm. Frank Bradley, who now oversees Special Operations Command and has been summoned to brief Congress. Bradley's oversight marked a departure from the usual geographic combatant commander after Adm. Alvin Holsey's retirement was unexpectedly announced.
#law-of-armed-conflict #shipwreck-survivors #caribbean-counter-narcotics-strike #special-operations-command
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