US military says one killed in Pacific vessel strike, two survive

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative file photo — U.S. Navy sailors load an AGM-114 Hellfire missile to an MH-60R Seahawk Helicopter on the flight deck of USS San Jacinto (CG 56). .S. Navy photo by Lt. Alex Delgado via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS))

By Kanishka Singh (Reuters)

WASHINGTON, June 17  -  The U.S. military said on Tuesday it struck a vessel in the Eastern Pacific, killing one person and leaving two survivors.

It marked the latest such attack that human rights groups call extrajudicial killings and Washington casts as targeting of "narco-terrorists."

Here are some details:

• The U.S. Southern Command said on X that one male was killed in the strike while two males survived.

• The U.S. Coast Guard was notified for search and rescue operations, the Southern Command said.

• There have rarely been survivors of the U.S. strikes.

• President Donald Trump's administration has been striking vessels that it accuses of transporting narcotics.

• Experts and human rights advocates, both in the U.S. and globally, have questioned the legality of the strikes.

• The U.S. military's strikes on such vessels have killed more than 200 people since September.

• The Southern Command said the vessel targeted on Tuesday was operated by "Designated Terrorists Organizations" and was "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes."

• It did not identify the organizations or the individuals and did not provide details on its claims.

• Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International consider such strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings.

 (Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman // REUTERS)