U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, June 10, 2025. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate and House Armed Services Committees will launch a bipartisan investigation into U.S. military strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea, with particular focus on an alleged follow-up attack that killed two survivors of the initial operation, according to The Washington Post.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-Ill., issued a joint statement Friday in which they promised “robust oversight” of the killings.
“The Committee is aware of recent news reports and the Department of Defense’s initial response regarding alleged continued attacks on vessels suspected of carrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM (Southern Command) area of responsibility. The Committee has directed the Department to investigate, and we will conduct vigorous oversight to determine the facts surrounding these circumstances,” Wicker and Reed said.
So did 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 providing rigorous oversight of Department of Defense military operations in the Caribbean.”
“We take reports of additional attacks on boats believed to be carrying drugs in the SOUTHCOM region seriously and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full report of this operation,” the statement read.
The investigation represents a infrequent bipartisan scrutiny of President Donald Trump’s administration since his second term began in January. Except for voting for release federal case files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Trump ultimately supported, Republicans largely left Trump’s decisions and policies unchallenged.
Another attack was reported
Following the investigation, lawmakers’ attention has been refocused on already questionable U.S. operations targeting alleged drug boats report published Friday by The Washington Post revealed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to kill everyone during the Sept. 2 operation – the first of several attacks by U.S. boats in the Caribbean Sea that killed about 80 people.
According to the report, two survivors were clinging to the burning wreckage after the first hit. Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, who commanded the attack from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, ordered a second or subsequent attack to fulfill Hegseth’s order and kill the remaining survivors. States Newsroom has not independently confirmed the details.
Hegseth called the report “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory” in: post on Friday on social media.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., he said Sunday’s edition of CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” said another strike could “rise to the level of a war crime if true.”
“If these reports are true, this is a clear violation of the Department of Defense’s laws of war, as well as international law regarding the treatment of persons in such circumstances,” Kaine said.
A working group composed of former military lawyers issued statement 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 gives or carries out such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both,” according to a statement published by Just Security, a national security journal published by the New York University Law and Security Center.
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 strike
At Monday’s news conference, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt faced numerous questions about the Post report.
A reporter asked Leavitt, “Does the administration deny that a second strike occurred, or did it actually occur and the administration denies that Secretary Hegseth gave the order?”
“The latter is true and I have a statement here for you to read,” Leavitt said, adding that Trump and Hegseth have the authority to carry out lethal attacks on designated drug-terrorist groups.
“Regarding the aforementioned strikes that occurred on September 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” she said. “Admiral Bradley acted well within his authority and the law of the war to ensure the destruction of the boat and the elimination of the threat to the United States of America.”
Leavitt’s statement did not entirely match Hegseth’s Friday denial, in which he called the reports “fabricated.”
Trump repeats Hegseth’s denial
On Sunday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he “wouldn’t want that” when asked about the alleged second attack that killed two survivors.
“The first attack was very deadly. Everything was fine and if there were two people around, but Pete (Hegseth) said that wasn’t what happened,” Trump told reporters.
“Pete said he did not order the deaths of these two men,” Trump continued in circles with the press.
Trump also said on Saturday that he was closing the airspace over Venezuela, but he said reporter who asked Sunday whether the move heralded a U.S. raid on the country, not to read “anything into it.”
“I am asking all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers to consider a COMPLETE CLOSURE OF THE AIRSPACE OVER AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA,” he wrote on his social media platform just before 8 a.m. Eastern Saturday.
Trump confirmed reports he spoke with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro behind schedule last month, but did not disclose details of the conversation.
The United States has been building up ships and naval troops off the coast of Venezuela for months, including recently addition in mid-November of the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford.
