Pete Hegseth wants to shoot down more boats belonging to suspected drug smugglers.Image: keystone
12/02/2025, 7:34 p.m12/02/2025, 7:34 p.m
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced further attacks on boats belonging to suspected drug smugglers. “We have only just begun destroying drug boats and sending drug terrorists to the bottom of the sea,” Hegseth said at a Cabinet meeting in the White House.
Hegseth has come under pressure because of the attacks. The background is reports from CNN and the Washington Post that the US military first attacked an alleged drug smugglers’ boat in the Caribbean on September 2nd and then killed two surviving men with a second strike.
“We have only just begun destroying drug boats and sending drug terrorists to the bottom of the sea.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
The White House said Monday that Hegeseth had authorized the admiral in charge to carry out the attacks. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not say that Hegseth directly ordered the second strike, emphasizing instead that the admiral “acted within his authority and the law.”
Stand behind commanders
Hegseth said at the meeting in this context: “We always stand behind our commanders who make decisions in difficult situations, as in this case and in all of these attacks.” According to the minister, the amount of drugs coming into the country via sea has now fallen by 91 percent. The USA has therefore taken a short break in attacks on drug smuggling boats, “because it is currently difficult to find boats that we can attack”. (val/sda/dpa)