Washington — The White Home on Monday stated a U.S. assault on an alleged drug boat in September included multiple strike on the vessel, seemingly confirming a Washington Put up report that the U.S. focused the boat for a second time to take out survivors of the preliminary assault.
The Put up reported on Friday that Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to go away no survivors earlier than the U.S. assault on a suspected drug-smuggling boat within the Caribbean on Sept. 2. The Put up reported that the primary strike left two males alive within the water. The paper stated the commander of the operation, Adm. Frank Bradley, ordered a second strike to adjust to Hegseth’s directive, killing the 2. CBS Information has not independently confirmed the Washington Put up’s reporting.
The report sparked requires an investigation by lawmakers of each events in Congress, a few of whom raised the prospect that concentrating on the survivors might represent a warfare crime. Hegseth has referred to as the reporting “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory,” claiming the operations within the Caribbean are “lawful underneath each U.S. and worldwide legislation.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt was requested concerning the Put up’s report through the White Home briefing on Monday. “Does the administration deny that that second strike occurred, or did it occur and the administration denies that Secretary Hegseth gave the order?” a reporter requested.
“The latter is true,” Leavitt replied, earlier than studying out a written assertion: “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narcoterrorist teams are topic to deadly concentrating on in accordance with the legal guidelines of warfare. With respect to the strikes in query on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth approved Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley labored effectively inside his authority and the legislation, directing the engagement to make sure the boat was destroyed and the menace to the USA of America was eradicated.”
At one other level, CBS Information senior White Home correspondent Weijia Jiang requested Leavitt: “So was the preliminary order from Secretary Hegseth, ‘everybody be killed,’ and did that come from President Trump?”
“I noticed that quoted in a Washington Put up story. I’d reject that the secretary of warfare ever stated that,” Leavitt stated. “Nonetheless, the president has made it fairly clear that if narcoterrorists, once more, are trafficking unlawful medication in direction of the USA, he has the authority to kill them. And that is what this administration is doing.”
Afterward Monday, Hegseth wrote on social media that Bradley is “an American hero, a real skilled, and has my 100% help.”
“I stand by him and the fight selections he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since,” Hegseth stated.
Picture from video taken moments earlier than a army strike on an alleged drug boat, posted on X by Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sept. 2, 2025.
X/@PeteHegseth
President Trump stated Sunday that he “would not have needed” the second strike however defended Hegseth’s dealing with of the incident, saying the secretary instructed him he didn’t order the next assault.
“The primary strike was very deadly, it was tremendous,” the president instructed reporters on Air Power One, saying he has “nice confidence” in Hegseth.
He added: “I’ll discover out about it, however Pete stated he didn’t order the dying of these two males.”
A bunch of former army attorneys argued in an evaluation on Saturday that the reported second strike could be a violation of worldwide or home legislation. In Congress, the leaders of the Home and Senate Armed Companies Committees pledged to research the matter. And Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia stated on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” Sunday that the strike “rises to the extent of a warfare crime if it is true,” whereas GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio agreed that it “could be an unlawful act” if true.
Former Protection Secretary Leon Panetta, who served within the function from 2011-2013 underneath former President Barack Obama, stated on “CBS Night Information” Monday that the reported second strike constitutes a warfare crime “as a result of these people had been injured. They had been within the water.”
“The essential guidelines of warfare which might be concerned right here make very clear that you don’t strike wounded folks within the water with the intention to kill them,” Panetta stated. “You principally then are accountable to attempt to be sure you do all the pieces to attempt defend their lives at that time. And that the priority proper now whether or not or not this actually violated the principles of warfare and constituted a legal act.”
On Monday, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, instructed reporters that he has spoken with Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, and he plans to speak with the admiral who led the operation. He stated Hegseth “did point out” that “there was a second assault.” However Wicker instructed reporters he didn’t have info on survivors who might have been killed, including that he expects to obtain that info as a result of “we’ll have the entire audio and the entire video.”
The developments come because the U.S. has carried out shut to 2 dozen boat strikes within the Caribbean and jap Pacific Ocean for the reason that first assault on Sept. 2.
Requested by CBS Information if he has issues concerning the boat strikes extra broadly, Mr. Trump stated Sunday: “Little or no, as a result of you possibly can see the boats, you possibly can see the medication within the boats and every boat is accountable for killing 25,000 People.”
“The quantity of medicine coming into our nation by sea is infinitesimal in comparison with what it was just some months in the past,” the president stated.
Grace Kazarian
contributed to this report.