US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday announced that a ship believed to be involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Caribbean was hit by the US, killing three people.

In a post on X, Hegseth said: “On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organisation, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility."

He further said: “The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was travelling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics. There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in in

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