The U.S. military launched another strike Tuesday (May 26, 2026) on a vessel suspected of transporting drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one man and leaving two survivors.

U.S. military watchdog probes strikes on alleged drug boats: reports

Video posted on social media by U.S. Southern Command shows a boat speeding through water before exploding into flames. Southern Command said it “immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors”. The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters, including the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, has gone on since early September and killed at least 194 people in total. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

The Pentagon watchdog said last week that it will evaluate whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out the attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats. The six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle include a military commander’s intent, target development, analysis, decision, execution and assessment.

The Pentagon inspector general’s office said the review was “self-initiated”. It will not probe the legality of the strikes, which have drawn intense scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers and military legal scholars.

The Trump administration says the U.S. is at war against the Latin American drug cartels, which it says are responsible for the scourge of fatal drug overdoses plaguing many American communities.

The U.S. military said on Sunday (April 12, 2026) that it blew up two boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a total of five people and leaving one survivor, as the Trump administration pursues its campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America while preparing a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The attacks on Saturday (April 11, 2026) bring the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 168 since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narco-terrorists” in early September.

The UN human rights chief says U.S. military strikes against vessels allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.

The condemnation on Friday (October 31, 2025) appeared to mark the first of its kind from a United Nations organisation.

President Donald Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

Volker Turk, the rights chief, called for an investigation into the strikes, and said more than 60 people had reportedly been killed in the strikes on boats in the region since early September, said UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.

“These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable,” she told a UN briefing in Geneva on Friday.

She said Mr. Turk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.” “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable,” she added.

“The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.” Ms. Shamdasani noted U.S. explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counter-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.