By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – A U.S. military commander is expected tell lawmakers on Thursday that survivors of a military strike in the Caribbean were legitimate targets for a second attack because their vessel was still believed to contain illegal narcotics, a U.S. official told Reuters.
On September 2, the U.S. military carried out a strike in the Caribbean which killed 11 suspected drug traffickers.
Officials have said that the U.S. military carried out a second strike against their vessel, which has raised questions about the legality of the operation.
Admiral Frank M. Bradley, who was the head of Joint Special Operations Command at the time, will tell lawmakers in a classified briefing on Thursday that the two survivors were legitimate military targets because they were perceived as capable of continuing drug trafficking, the official said.
Bradley, who now leads U.S. Special Operations Command, will be joined by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, during the closed-door hearing, the official added.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The early September strike has drawn bipartisan scrutiny from Congress and concerns about the legality of the administration’s moves. So far, there have been 20 U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific against suspected drug vessels, killing more than 80 people.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday he had watched the first U.S. strike in September on the alleged drug-smuggling vessel in real time, but did not see survivors in the water or the second lethal strike that he described as being carried out in the “fog of war.” But he defended Bradley’s decision to carry out a follow-up strike.
“Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth said.
Trump, who told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that he would not have wanted the second strike, largely voiced support on Tuesday, while saying he hadn’t been aware of the second strike.
U.S. officials have told Reuters that Hegseth has ordered lethal strikes on drug vessels, including the early September one in question, as part of a broader Trump administration campaign that equates suspected drug traffickers with terrorists despite objections from many legal experts.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Michael Perry)
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