Washington, 3 December (H.S.): US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has insisted he “did not personally see survivors” before a controversial follow‑up strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug‑smuggling boat in the Caribbean that killed two people left clinging to the burning vessel after an initial attack on 2 September.

Speaking during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Hegseth said he watched the first strike live but then went to another engagement, framing the incident as a product of the “fog of war” in a fast‑moving operation.

The White House has confirmed that Admiral Frank Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command and now chief of US Special Operations Command, authorised the second strike under authority delegated by Hegseth.

President Donald Trump publicly backed Bradley as a “tough” commander and said the administration wants such boats “taken out”, while at the same time claiming he was not informed in advance of the decision to hit the vessel again.

Officials say more than 80 people have been killed in similar maritime strikes across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since early September, operations the administration defends as lethal but lawful actions to disrupt narco‑trafficking networks that it links to designated terrorist organisations.

The 2 September “double‑tap” strike has triggered rare, bipartisan alarm in Congress, with the Senate Armed Services Committee and other panels promising “vigorous oversight” and summoning Bradley to Capitol Hill this week.

Legal scholars and humanitarian law experts note that the Geneva Conventions prohibit intentionally targeting wounded combatants who are hors de combat and say the reported killing of visible survivors on a disabled boat could amount to a war crime if they no longer posed an imminent threat.

Despite the scrutiny, the Trump administration has signalled it will continue and possibly expand such missions, with Trump vowing to extend operations from maritime targets to “strikes on land” against cartels and allied groups in the wider region.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar