The U.S. military has reportedly struck another suspected drug boat on Thursday in the Caribbean, two U.S. officials told CNN.
The strike, which is yet to be publicly confirmed, would be the sixth such attack since last month.
The alleged operation is thought to be the first of the strikes to leave behind survivors.
The U.S. military has launched search and rescue assets for the two or three people thought to have survived Thursdayâs strike, whose injuries are unknown, an official told Fox News.
The Independent has contacted the Pentagon and the White House for comment.
Prior to Thursdayâs alleged strike, which was first reported by Reuters, 27 people have been killed in U.S. attacks on alleged drug boats passing through the region.
Information regarding who was onboard these boats has been sparse.
Chad Joseph, 26, of Trinidad and Tobago, may have been one of six people killed in a similar strike earlier this week, according to his family.
Joseph, a fisherman from the village of Las Cuevas, had been living in Venezuela in recent months. His family said he frequently made trips across the Caribbean in his work as a fisherman.
âI donât want to believe that this is my child,â his mother, Lenore Burnley, told The New York Times. âIs this really true?â
Josephâs family denies he is a drug trafficker.
The Trump administration has claimed all those aboard that vessel were âmale narcoterrorists.â
The strikes have proved controversial both in- and outside the U.S.
Admiral Alvin Hosley, the head of U.S. Southern Command, which is overseeing the strikes, will retire at yearâs end, according to the Department of Defense, reportedly after Hosley expressed concern about the strikes.
Venezuela, whose citizens are thought to have been killed in prior strikes on the boats, has fiercely criticized the U.S. military buildup in the region and mobilized its own troops and militia forces.
Legal observers have warned the strikes may not be legal, despite the White House insisting the U.S. is formally engaged in an âarmed conflictâ with drug cartels that the president has labeled âunlawful combatants,â freeing up extraordinary wartime powers.
âAll available evidence suggests that President Trumpâs lethal strikes in the Caribbean constitute murder, pure and simple,âJeffrey Stein, director of the ACLUâs National Security Project, said in a recent statement. âThe public deserves to know how our government is justifying these attacks as lawful, and, given the stakes, immediate public scrutiny of its apparently radical theories is imperative.â
President Trump told reporters on Wednesday he has authorized CIA missions inside Venezuela as part of his anti-drug crackdown.
The president added that the U.S. was looking at land operations against Venezuela following the naval strikes.
âWe are certainly looking at land now because weâve got the sea under control,â he said Wednesday.
The U.S. is in the midst of biggest military buildup in the Caribbean since the 1980s. It has sent fighter planes, an attack submarine, spy jets, and eight Navy warships to the region.
