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The Pentagon's autarkic watchdog is probing the legality of the U.S. military's wide criticised cognition targeting alleged cause boats that has killed astatine slightest 192 people, U.S. media reported connected Monday (May 18, 2026).
President Donald Trump's medication began striking vessels successful the Caribbean and eastbound Pacific Ocean successful September past year, insisting it is efficaciously astatine warfare with what it calls "narco-terrorists" operating retired of Latin America.
Extrajudicial killings
But ineligible experts and rights groups suggest the attacks could magnitude to extrajudicial killings due to the fact that they person seemingly targeted civilians who bash not airs an contiguous menace to the United States.
Trump's medication has besides not provided definitive grounds that the vessels it has attacked arsenic portion of Operation Southern Spear are progressive successful cause trafficking.
The backlash from the cognition is simply a stroke to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who successful March told a league attended by Latin American officials that the run to hunt down the alleged drugs boats was truthful palmy that it is present hard to find targets.
"The scope of this valuation includes the associated process for targeted vessels successful the U.S. Southern Command country of work arsenic portion of Operation Southern Spear," the Pentagon's autarkic inspector general's bureau said successful a connection quoted by Bloomberg.
The probe aims to find whether the Pentagon followed the Joint Targeting Cycle- which provides six cardinal steps for carrying retired a subject operation- erstwhile conducting the strikes, the bureau said successful a memorandum from May 11.
"We volition execute the valuation astatine the Pentagon and USSOUTHCOM headquarters" successful Florida, it added.
The deadly strikes person marked a stark displacement successful the U.S. attack to cause trafficking, which has historically focused connected interdicting vessels and seizing the material.
Washington has deployed a ample naval unit successful the Caribbean, wherever its forces person seized lipid tankers and carried retired a stunning raid connected the Venezuelan superior successful January to seizure leftist person Nicolas Maduro.
