Six dead as US forces launch airstrike against suspected drug smugglers

Pete Hegseth announced the latest airstrike by US forces on suspected drug smugglers (Evan Vucci/AP)

The US military has conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday.

The strike on the boat, believed to be operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, left six people dead in the Caribbean.

In a social media post, Mr Hegseth said the strike occurred overnight, and it marks the second time the Trump administration has tied one of its operations to the gang, which has its origins in a Venezuelan prison.

The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks in September, when they first began, to three this week.

If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat al-Qaeda. Day or night, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you

Two of the strikes this week were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding the area in which the military was launching attacks and where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.

In a 20-second black and white video of the strike posted to social media, a small boat can be seen apparently sitting motionless on the water when a long, thin projectile descends on it, triggering an explosion.

The video ends before the blast dies down enough for the remains of the boat to be seen again.

Mr Hegseth said the strike happened in international waters and boasted that it was the first one conducted at night.

“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat al-Qaeda,” Mr Hegseth said in the post.

“Day or night, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

The strike also came hours after the US military flew a pair of supersonic heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela on Thursday.

The flight was just the most recent move in what has been an unusually large military build-up in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela that has raised speculation that President Donald Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Mr Trump, this month, declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and said the US was in an “armed conflict” with them.

Despite the concerns from some lawmakers, the Republican-controlled Senate has voted down a Democratic-sponsored war powers resolution that would have required the president to seek authorisation from Congress before further military strikes.