US lawmakers from both parties are pressing the Trump administration for clarity after a report alleged that American forces conducted a second strike to kill survivors of an initial attack on a suspected Venezuelan drug-smuggling boat earlier this year. The claims, first reported by The Washington Post, have triggered bipartisan concern in Congress and renewed scrutiny of the administration’s expanding military operations in the Caribbean.
The Post reported on Friday that a 2 September strike on a vessel in international waters left two survivors. According to the report, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly issued a spoken directive to “kill everybody” on board, and a Special Operations commander ordered a second strike to comply. The Asia Live has not independently verified the allegations.
Hegseth swiftly rejected the report as “fake news”, calling the allegations “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” in a post on X. He insisted that US strikes on suspected narcotics vessels are “lawful under both US and international law”, adding: “Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, said he believed his defence secretary “100%”. While he pledged the administration would “look into” the matter, Trump added that he “wouldn’t have wanted that – not a second strike.”
The controversy comes amid an intensifying US military campaign in the Caribbean. In recent weeks, the administration has increased its naval and air presence in the region and conducted a series of lethal strikes on boats it claims were ferrying illicit drugs from Venezuela and Colombia. US officials argue the operations are legitimate acts of self-defence within what they describe as a “non-international armed conflict” with drug-trafficking groups. More than 80 people have been killed since early September, according to US figures.
Legal experts, however, note that the rules of engagement in such conflicts — outlined in the Geneva Conventions — prohibit targeting wounded or incapacitated individuals. Survivors are to be captured and treated, not attacked, raising significant questions about the legality of a second strike if it occurred as reported.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers appearing on Sunday political talk shows expressed alarm. “This rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true,” said Democratic Senator Tim Kaine on CBS’s Face the Nation. Republican Mike Turner, a former House Intelligence Committee chair, said Congress currently lacks confirmation of the alleged follow-up strike, but agreed that such an action “would be a very serious, illegal act”.
Congressional oversight bodies have already moved to investigate. On Friday, the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee announced it had formally requested information from the Department of Defense. In a joint statement, Chair Senator Roger Wicker and ranking Democrat Senator Jack Reed said the committee would conduct “vigorous oversight” to establish the facts.
The House Armed Services Committee said it is also pursuing a bipartisan inquiry to obtain “a full accounting of the operation in question”.
The allegations have intensified political tensions with Venezuela, whose National Assembly on Sunday condemned the strikes and vowed to conduct its own “rigorous and thorough investigation” into the reported second attack. Caracas has long accused Washington of using anti-narcotics operations as cover for efforts to destabilise President Nicolás Maduro’s government.
Trump confirmed he had recently spoken with Maduro but declined to offer details, saying only: “I wouldn’t say it went well or badly. It was a phone call.”
International legal scrutiny may also intensify. Although the US is not a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), American military lawyers have said the US generally acts in line with its provisions, which restrict interference with vessels in international waters except under limited circumstances such as hot pursuit.
As congressional inquiries begin, the Pentagon faces mounting pressure to explain the rules guiding its Caribbean operations — and whether they were followed on 2 September.
