U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Budget Committee on June 10, 2025. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives Armed Services Committees will launch bipartisan investigations into U.S. military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, with a focus on a suspected follow-up attack that killed two survivors of the first operation, according to the Washington Post.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., issued a joint statement Friday pledging “vigorous monitoring” of the killings.
“The Committee is aware of recent news reports – and the Department of Defense’s initial response – of alleged follow-on attacks on suspected drug vessels in the SOUTHCOM (Southern Command) area of responsibility. The Committee has directed investigations to the Department, and we will conduct rigorous oversight to determine the facts surrounding these circumstances,” Wicker and Reed said.
Similarly, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and ranking member Adam Smith, D-Wash., said in a joint statement Saturday that the panel is “committed to strong oversight of the Defense Department’s military operations in the Caribbean.”
“We are taking seriously reports of follow-up attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to obtain a full understanding of the operation in question,” the statement said.
The investigations represent a occasional bipartisan review of President Donald Trump’s administration since his second term began in January. Except for the vote release Because of the federal files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Trump eventually endorsed, Republicans have largely left Trump’s decisions and policies unchallenged.
Follow-up attack reported
Lawmakers’ attention turned to already legally questionable U.S. operations targeting suspected drug boats following an investigation report As The Washington Post reported Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to kill everyone during an operation on Sept. 2, the first of several U.S. boat attacks in the Caribbean that killed about 80 people.
According to the report, two survivors clung to burning rubble after an initial hit. Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, who commanded the attack from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, ordered a second or follow-up attack to carry out Hegseth’s orders and kill the remaining survivors. States Newsroom has not independently confirmed the details.
Hegseth called the report “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory” in an article post on social media on Friday.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday said the follow-up strike “could rise to the level of a war crime if true.”
“If this reporting is true, it is a clear violation of the Defense Department’s own laws of war, as well as international laws regarding how to treat people who find themselves in such a situation,” Kaine said.
A working group of former military lawyers issued one opinion Friday calls on Congress to investigate the September 2 strike.
“Because orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are ‘patently illegal,’ anyone who issues or obeys such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both,” said the statement from Just Security, a national security-focused journal published by the New York University School of Law’s Reiss Center on Law and Security.
A bipartisan effort led by Kaine to stop Trump’s deadly attacks in the Caribbean narrowly failed in the Senate in early November.
White House confirms second attack
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt faced numerous questions about the Post report at Monday’s press conference.
A reporter asked Leavitt, “Is the government denying that this second strike happened, or did it happen and is the government denying that Minister Hegseth gave the order?”
“The latter is true, and I want to read you a statement here,” Leavitt said, adding that Trump and Hegseth had the authority to carry out deadly attacks on certain drug-terrorist groups.
“As to the attacks in question on September 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic attacks,” she said. “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law directing the operation to ensure that the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
Leavitt’s statement didn’t entirely match Hegseth’s denial Friday, in which he called the reporting “fabricated.”
Trump agrees with Hegseth’s denial
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he “wouldn’t have wanted that” when asked about the alleged follow-up attack that killed the two survivors.
“The first attack was very deadly. It was fine, and if there were two people around – but Pete (Hegseth) said that didn’t happen,” Trump told reporters.
“Pete said he did not order the deaths of these two men,” Trump continued in a back-and-forth with the press.
Trump also said on Saturday that he would close the airspace over Venezuela, but told A reporter who asked Sunday whether the move envisaged a U.S. airstrike on the country said he “didn’t read anything into it.”
“To all airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers: Please remember that THE AIRSPACE OVER AND AROUND VENEZUELA IS COMPLETELY CLOSED,” he wrote on his own social media platform shortly before 8 a.m. on Easter Saturday.
Trump confirmed Reports He spoke with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro tardy last month but declined to reveal details of the conversation.
The US has been amassing naval ships and troops off the coast of Venezuela for months, including in recent months Addition In mid-November, the Navy’s most current aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford.
