WASHINGTON —

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced another deadly U.S. strike on a boat he said was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea.

The attack Thursday killed three people aboard the vessel, Hegseth said, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration’s campaign in South American waters up to at least 69 people in at least 17 strikes. Advertisement

Hegseth posted a 20-second video of the strike on social media and wrote, “As we’ve said before, vessel strikes on narco-terrorists will continue until their ... poisoning of the American people stops.” He claimed the vessel was “operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by saying the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming

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