US House Speaker says Venezuela drug boat strikes killed 'able-bodied' men, not helpless

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that the US military's controversial September 2 Venezuela drug boat strikes were "entirely appropriate" and that the two initial survivors who were killed in a follow-on strike were "able-bodied."

Johnson made the comments after viewing a video of the September 2 boat strikes and receiving a briefing from the commander who oversaw the mission, CBS news reported.

The September 2 strike was the first of at least 22 known strikes by the Trump administration on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed at least 87 people.

It marked the beginning of a new policy of killing suspected drug traffickers that has come under fire from critics who say it is illegal and needlessly inhumane.

Johnson reportedly said he's satisfied with the intelligence and legality of the operation.

He added that the strikes were conducted in accordance with the law and established protocol, CBS news stated.

According to the report, only a handful of lawmakers — the leaders of the House and Senate armed services and intelligence committees — saw the video of the strikes.

The lawmakers agree that two men survived the initial strike and were seen clinging to a piece of the boat and waving, but they disagree about the condition of the survivors and what they may have been trying to do after the strike.

'War crime'

Some Democrats and legal experts argued that a follow-up strike to kill shipwrecked survivors could constitute a war crime.

According to CBS news, they believe that the waving by the survivors could be interpreted as a call for help or an attempt to wave off another strike.

Republicans who have seen the video say that the men were uninjured and trying to signal other drug vessels so they could continue their alleged drug running and were therefore legal targets.

Adm. Bradley, after consulting a military lawyer who was in the room where the operation was being conducted, ordered another strike that killed the men.

'Able-bodied men'

Johnson reportedly rejected characterisations of the men as helpless survivors and said of them, "They were able-bodied, they were not injured, and they were attempting to recover the contents of the boat, which was full of narcotics."

"The individuals on that vessel were not helpless castaways," Johnson said. “They were drug runners on a capsized drug boat, and by all indications, attempting to recover it so they could continue pushing drugs to kill Americans.”

Johnson also told reporters the US had "exquisite intelligence" showing "there was another vessel in close proximity that was headed their direction."

"They seemed to be waving their arms at some point to indicate that that vessel that was off outside of the video that we have was headed that way, and so that they could continue their mission," Johnson said of the two men.

"I'm satisfied with the intelligence, with the way that this was conducted. I think it was entirely appropriate," he said. "I'm fully confident that it was done the right way," Johnson said.