The US military conducted its 8th strike against a vessel allegedly carrying narcotics, on Tuesday night, the report said citing two US officials familiar with the matter. This is the first operation to be conducted on the Pacific side of South America, it added.
The report further noted that at least two individuals were killed in the attack. Overall, some 34 individuals have lost their lives as a result of the ongoing strikes campaign in the region since early September, it added.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike on X.
"Yesterday, at the direction of President [Donald] Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific," Hegseth wrote. "The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics".
Two "narco-terrorists" were killed during the strike carried out in international waters, Hegseth said. No US forces harmed in the operation, he added.
In recent months, the Pentagon has been increasing the number of naval, air and land assets deployed throughout the Caribbean, in the US Southern Command area of authority. The deployment is part of a major operation allegedly on counternarcotics and counterterrorism, according to Washington.