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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday evening a new operation dubbed “Southern Spear” to quash “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere.

Hegseth said the mission is being led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) to defend the “Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people.”

“The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it,” he wrote on social media .

When reached for comment, the Pentagon referred The Hill back to Hegseth’s post on X.

The announcement comes as Hegseth,

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