The Pentagon was aware that survivors remained in the water after a September US military strike on an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean Sea, yet a second strike was still authorised to sink the boat, according to an Associated Press report quoting two individuals familiar with the incident.
What did the Pentagon know before the second strike?
According to two people with direct knowledge of the operation, who spoke on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity, US officials understood there were individuals still alive after the initial 2 September strike. Nevertheless, they launched a follow-on attack to destroy the vessel.
The Trump administration has maintained that all 11 people on board died in the first strike. What remains “unclear was who ordered the strikes and whether Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was involved,” one official was quoted by AP, adding that the chain of command is now a central focus of Congressional oversight.
The knowledge of survivors, and the rationale offered for proceeding regardless, “was not presented to lawmakers during a classified briefing in September.” It emerged only later and has been deemed “broadly unsatisfactory” by members of the national security committees.
How has Pete Hegseth responded to allegations that he saw survivors?
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addressed the incident publicly on Tuesday, insisting he did not personally witness any survivors clinging to the wreckage between the two US strikes.
“I did not personally see survivors,” he told reporters, explaining that “the thing was on fire. It exploded, there’s fire, there’s smoke.”
“This is called the fog of war,” he added.
He later defended the commander who authorised the second strike, Adm Frank “Mitch” Bradley, saying Bradley “made the right call” and “had complete authority to do so". Hegseth also acknowledged he “didn’t stick around” for the remainder of the mission.
Why is Congress investigating the incident?
Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have launched investigations — a rare bipartisan move — as legal experts and lawmakers question whether the US acted lawfully.
Critics argue that striking survivors in the water during peacetime operations could violate international humanitarian law and human rights conventions. The Trump administration has asserted that the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, despite Congress never authorising military force in the region.
Adm Bradley, who the administration says ordered the second strike, is scheduled to brief the committees’ Republican chairmen and Democratic ranking members behind closed doors on Thursday.
What wider concerns does US boat strike in the Caribbean raise?
The 2 September strike was the first in what the Trump administration described as an expanding counter-narcotics campaign spanning the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The operation has since grown to more than 20 known strikes, resulting in over 80 deaths.
A separate strike on 15 September triggered a formal human rights challenge. The family of Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian fisherman, has petitioned the Inter-American human rights system, arguing his death was an extrajudicial killing after the US military bombed his small fishing vessel.
These combined incidents have heightened pressure on the Pentagon to clarify legal grounds, rules of engagement, and oversight mechanisms governing lethal operations far from conventional theatres of war.
Will the video of the boat strike be released?
Responding to questions on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said he was open to releasing video footage of the follow-on strike, as multiple Democratic lawmakers have demanded.
“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have, we’d certainly release. No problem,” he told reporters.
