<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US military has killed 64 people in 15 strikes that have destroyed 16 boats as part of a campaign that Washington says is aimed at curtailing the flow of drugs into the </span><a href="http://www.9news.com.au/USA" rel="" target="" title="United States"><span>United States</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There have been three survivors of those strikes, two of whom were briefly detained by the US Navy before being returned to their home countries.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Trump administration has told Congress that the US is now in an "armed conflict" against drug cartels beginning with its first strike on September 2, labeling those killed "unlawful combatants" and claiming the ability to engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-orders-pentagon-to-prepare-for-war-in-nigeria/8f2e241e-e5bb-467d-8a4b-fa501e379026" target="_blank"><strong><span>Pentagon preparing war plans after Trump threatens nation online</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Some members of Congress as well as human rights groups have questioned that finding and argued that potential drug traffickers should face prosecution, as had been the policy of interdiction carried out by the US before President Donald Trump took office.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Trump administration has also not provided public evidence of the presence of narcotics on the boats struck, nor their affiliation with drug cartels.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Military officials have said that no US service members have been harmed in the strikes.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/a-timeline-of-us-strikes-on-boats-that-have-killed-64/a4c12cd2-c1fa-42b1-9fea-4573747294fd" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Here is the timeline of the attacks:</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>September 2, first attack</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The first strike on a vessel in the Caribbean took place on September 2.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump announced the offensive on his social media accounts and said that under his orders, US forces "conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere," Trump wrote on Truth Social.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!" he added.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>CNN reported that Defense Department officials have not, during briefings to members of Congress, presented conclusive evidence that the targets of the first attack were members of Tren de Aragua, and that those briefed said military officials could not determine the intended destination of the boat with certainty.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>CNN also reported that the boat appeared to have turned around before it was struck.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The strike killed 11 people.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>September 15</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Less than two weeks later, the US military carried out a second strike against a vessel in international waters, killing three.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump said the vessel was allegedly "transporting illegal narcotics" from Venezuela.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to US National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests," he added.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The strike came amid rising tensions with that country, as the United States deployed military assets to the region.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has described the strikes on boats as "serial executions" and called on the UN to investigate, while saying that the US is seeking regime change.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Venezuela's defence minister, Vladimir Padrino, said it amounts to "an undeclared war," while the foreign ministry denounced Washington's "military threat."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At the time, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said they expected more activity in the Caribbean in an effort to reduce drug traffic into the US.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>September 19</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Four days later, Trump announced another lethal military strike on a suspected drug trafficking vessel that he said was affiliated with a designated terrorist organisation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans," Trump posted on Truth Social alongside a video of the operation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Three people were killed in the strike.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 3</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hegseth announced that the US military had carried out a fourth strike in which four people died.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The attack took place in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela, Hegseth wrote in a post on social media.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He did not say which alleged terrorist organisation the boat was linked to, but added that "Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 14</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Six people died in the fifth US strike on a vessel, this boat described by officials as off the Venezuelan coast.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Once again, Trump said the vessel was "affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organisation," but he did not name a specific group or provide evidence of the boat's activities.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a letter to Congress in early October, the Pentagon said Trump had determined that the United States is in an "armed conflict" with the drug cartels his administration designated as terrorist organisations, and that cartel traffickers are "unlawful combatants."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 16</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US carried out a sixth strike on a boat in the Caribbean.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This was believed to be the first operation in which not all crew members on board were killed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The two survivors, one each from Ecuador and Colombia, were sent back to their home countries after being briefly detained on a US Navy ship.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore. The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution," Trump posted on Truth Social.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Jeison Obando Pérez, 34 years old, was identified as the survivor repatriated to Colombia in a post on X by the country's minister of the interior, Armando Benedetti.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Pérez arrived "with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, breathing with a ventilator," said Benedetti, who added that he had received medical attention.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The survivor from Ecuador, was identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila, 41 years old, according to a record from the National Police of Ecuador accessed by CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He arrived in the country on October 18 and underwent a medical evaluation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Office of the Attorney General of Ecuador reported on October 20 that there is no information that Tufiño Chila had committed a crime in Ecuadorian territory.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>However, US court documents indicate that he was arrested, convicted and imprisoned in 2020 for drug smuggling on the coast of Mexico before being deported.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"No, no… He is not. He is not a criminal," said Tufiño Chila's sister, who requested anonymity for security reasons, in statements to CNN from a small coastal town near Guayaquil, Ecuador.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 17</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hegseth announced that a seventh targeted vessel "transporting substantial amounts of narcotics" was struck and that it was affiliated with a Colombian terrorist organisation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>All three crew members on board were killed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people," Hegseth wrote.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The United States military will treat these organisations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The attacks sparked public clashes with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who accused the United States of killing an innocent Colombian citizen during one of its strikes on vessels in the Caribbean.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump announced he would cancel all US aid and subsidies to the country.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 21 and 22, first attacks in the Pacific</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US military carried out lethal strikes on two ships in the Pacific, killing everyone on board each vessel, according to Hegseth.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Two people were killed in the eighth strike and three in the ninth.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hegseth wrote on X that the first vessel targeted in the Pacific was "operated by a Designated Terrorist Organisation and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific," adding, "The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The action against vessels in the Pacific appeared to mark an expansion of the US military campaign, as the previous seven attacks were all conducted against ships in the Caribbean Sea.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbour anywhere in our hemisphere," Hegseth said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 24</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The tenth attack killed all six crew members.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Defence secretary said the US conducted a nighttime attack on a ship allegedly operated by Tren de Aragua in the Caribbean.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 27, multiple strikes</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hegseth reported multiple strikes in a single day for the first time, with three missiles hitting four vessels in international waters of the eastern Pacific on Monday, 27th.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He reported that 14 people were killed aboard the vessels "operated by designated terrorist organisations" and that there was one survivor who was not recovered.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics," the Defence Secretary stated.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Hegseth said that the US military had contacted the Mexican government to look for the survivor.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Mexican Navy said Friday that the search is in a "suspended active" status and the person is considered missing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>October 29</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The United States Armed Forces carried out an attack on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean that left four dead, Hegseth reported.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This vessel, like all the others, was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics," the Defence Secretary said in a post on X.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He added that US forces suffered no casualties.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>November 1</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US military carried out a strike on another vessel in the Caribbean Sea and killed three people on board, according to Hegseth.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organisation (DTO) in the Caribbean," Hegseth announced on X with an unclassified video of the strike. No US forces were harmed in the strike, he noted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Apple App Store</span></em></strong></a><span> </span><strong><em><span>and</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU&amp;pli=1" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Google Play</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>.</span></em></strong></div></div>