Washington, D.C., 7 December (H.S.): A fresh congressional briefing has delivered a stinging rebuke to President Donald Trump's assertion that a Venezuelan drug vessel struck by U.S. forces on September 2 was bound for American shores, with the overseeing admiral testifying that it aimed instead to rendezvous with a larger ship en route to Suriname in South America.

The operation, which claimed all 11 lives aboard through a controversial double-tap sequence of strikes, has ignited bipartisan scrutiny, particularly as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces demands to disclose full video footage despite his noncommittal response of reviewing it.

Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley informed lawmakers the boat had turned around upon detection and showed no signs of U.S.-directed trafficking, aligning with patterns where Pacific routes dominate American-bound narcotics flows while Suriname channels feed European markets.

Trump's immediate Truth Social post branded the crew confirmed narco-terrorists poisoning Americans, a claim now undermined, even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested a Caribbean destination like Trinidad shortly after the incident.

Hegseth, cleared by the admiral of issuing any kill them all directive, defends the strikes as lawful self-defense against cartel threats, likening smugglers to al-Qaeda while insisting President Trump holds authority for such decisive action.

Yet Democrats decry the secondary blasts on survivors clinging to wreckage as potentially unlawful, fueling calls for transparency amid shifting accounts from the Pentagon chief, who admitted leaving the monitoring room post-initial hit. As pressure mounts, the episope exposes fissures in the administration's counternarcotics campaign.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar