By Courtney McBride, Bloomberg News (TNS)

The White House defended the Pentagon’s handling of a September attack on an alleged drug-running boat and denied that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given an order to kill everyone on the vessel, rebutting a report that had led to allegations of possible war crimes.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed there were two strikes on the vessel in the Sept. 2 attack but stressed the actions were lawful amid a deadly domestic opioid crisis in the U.S. She also said the order for the second strike came from U.S. Navy Admiral Frank Bradley and not Hegseth.

President Donald Trump and Hegseth “have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war,” Le

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