US military says it struck vessel in the Caribbean, killing four

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. ​military said on Tuesday four people were killed in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean, the latest in a series ​of attacks that Washington says target “narco-terrorists” ⁠but human rights groups condemn as ​extrajudicial killings.

FURTHER DETAILS:

• “Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking. The operation killed four narco-terrorists,” the U.S. Southern Command said on X.

• It did ​not identify the individuals or provide details on the location other than to say the vessel was “operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean.”

• President Donald Trump’s administration has been striking vessels that it ​accuses of ​transporting narcotics ⁠since September 2025.

• The U.S. military’s strikes on ​such ⁠vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have killed more than 210 people.

• Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and independent U.N. experts have ⁠called ​the strikes unlawful extrajudicial ​killings.

• The U.S. military said on Monday two people were killed in a strike it launched on a vessel in the Eastern Pacific over the weekend. That strike marked the first in more than two months.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)