US Secretary of Protection Peter Hegseth defends controversial second strike on alleged drug boat within the Caribbean Sea.
Printed On 3 Dec 2025
US Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth has denied seeing any survivors from a navy strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat within the Caribbean Sea in September, earlier than the second lethal strike, which has prompted requires an investigation into potential battle crimes.
Talking at a Cupboard assembly on the White Home on Tuesday, Hegseth stated he watched the preliminary strike on September 2 in real-time however didn’t witness the controversial follow-up strike.
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“As you possibly can think about, on the Division of Warfare, we’ve acquired plenty of issues to do, so I didn’t stick round… I moved on to my subsequent assembly,” Hegseth stated on the assembly presided over by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration is asking the Division of Protection the Division of Warfare, although the president insists he’s a peacemaker who has brokered a number of ceasefire offers.
Hegseth stated that Admiral Frank Bradley, who heads particular operations within the US navy and was the mission commander for the September 2 assaults, had made “the best name” to hold out the second strike and “eradicate the menace”.
“I didn’t personally see survivors,” Hegseth stated, including that the scene of the strike had been obscured by fireplace and smoke.
“That is known as the fog of battle.”
Hegseth stated the Trump administration totally supported Bradley and had empowered commanders to do “tough issues in the dark on behalf of the American folks”.
Hegseth’s feedback got here amid rising calls for for accountability over the double-tap strike, which Democratic lawmakers and authorized students have condemned as a probable battle crime.
“Secretary Speak Present Host might have been experiencing the ‘fog of battle,’ however that doesn’t change the truth that this was an extrajudicial killing amounting to homicide or a battle crime,” US Senator Chris Van Hollen stated on X, referring to Hegseth’s earlier profession as a number on Fox Information.
“One factor is obvious: Pete Hegseth is unfit to serve. He should resign.”
Scrutiny of Hegseth’s function has mounted since The Washington Submit reported final week that navy commanders carried out a second strike on two survivors clinging to the vessel’s wreckage to conform along with his directive that nobody be left alive.
Hegseth blasted The Washington Submit report, which cited two unnamed folks conversant in the matter, as “pretend information”, “fabricated” and “inflammatory”.
The Pentagon’s personal handbook on the legal guidelines of battle calls orders to fireside on the survivors of shipwrecked vessels “clearly unlawful”.
The Trump administration has carried out strikes on no less than 22 vessels within the Caribbean Sea and Jap Pacific as a part of a controversial navy marketing campaign towards alleged drug traffickers.
Not less than 83 folks have been killed within the strikes, which many authorized students say quantity to extrajudicial killings and are unlawful below worldwide legislation.
The Trump administration has thus far not made public any proof to again its assertions that these boats have been carrying narcotics, have been headed to the US, or that they have been being commandeered by members of proscribed cartels.
