WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that he ordered another strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, expanding what the Trump administration declared is an "armed conflict" with cartels.

In a post on social media, Hegseth asserted that the "vessel was trafficking narcotics" and those aboard were "narco-terrorists." He said the strike killed four men but offered no details on who they were or what group they belonged to, following the U.S. designation of several Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

It is the fourth deadly strike in the Caribbean and the latest since revelations that President Donald Trump told lawmakers he will treat drug traffickers as unlawful combatants and military force is required to c

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