Updated Dec. 4, 2025 — Two people who survived an early September U.S. military strike on a vessel suspected of carrying drugs tried to climb back aboard the boat before it was hit a second time, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News.
The source said the survivors appeared to be attempting to salvage some of the contraband, were communicating with others, and that additional boats were nearby and could have recovered them.
ABC News first published further details about the strike, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted ABC’s segment on X.
The Sept. 2 mission — the initial action in what the Trump administration has described as more than 20 recent strikes on suspected drug-running vessels — has come under scrutiny from both parties. The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. forces struck the same boat at least twice in the Caribbean, and that two people who survived the first strike were killed by the second. The Post said the follow-up attack occurred after Hegseth reportedly said everyone onboard should be killed.
The White House has acknowledged a second strike took place but denied Hegseth ordered it. Hegseth has said the mission commander, Adm. Mitch Bradley, made the call and has defended the legality and justification for the follow-up attack.
Democrats and some legal scholars say the second strike could amount to a war crime under U.S. and international law if the military deliberately targeted survivors. A Pentagon manual on the law of war says that “wounded, sick, or shipwrecked” combatants no longer pose a threat and should not be attacked.
Even before these revelations, critics questioned the legal basis for the wider campaign of boat strikes, arguing the president lacks authority to direct military operations against alleged traffickers without congressional authorization. Historically, U.S. forces have interdicted suspected smugglers at sea and treated them as criminals rather than as combatants.
The Trump administration counters that the strikes are lawful because it views the United States as engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels it classifies as terrorist organizations.
Lawmakers from both parties have pledged investigations into the Sept. 2 operation. Adm. Bradley is scheduled to testify before Congress on Thursday and is expected to present video from the Sept. 2 mission and explain his decisions, a source told CBS News. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is expected to accompany Bradley for the testimony.