US military says three killed in its strike on vessel in Eastern Pacific

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Thursday its strike on a vessel in the Eastern Pacific killed three males, marking ‌the latest such attack that human rights groups call extrajudicial killings and Washington casts as targeting of “narco-terrorists.”

Here are some details:

• “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed,” the U.S. Southern Command said late on Thursday.

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

• Experts and human rights advocates, both in the U.S. and globally, have questioned the legality of the strikes.

• The U.S. military’s strikes on such vessels have killed more than 200 people since September.

• The Southern Command said the vessel targeted on Thursday was operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” and was “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes.”

• It did not identify the organizations or the individuals and did not provide details on its claims.

• The U.S. military has issued near-identical statements after such strikes.

• Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International consider such strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings.

• The American Civil ⁠Liberties ​Union casts the assertions by ​the Trump administration against those it targets as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Stephen Coates)