The United States military said it conducted another strike on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific on Dec. 4, killing four men on board.

"Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific," U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement on X.

U.S. Southern Command said Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a "lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization" at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Four men aboard the vessel were killed.

The military also shared a 21-second-long video showing the vessel being struck.

Joint Task Force Southern Spear is part of Operation Southern Spear, a military force of more than a dozen Navy ships led by the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest aircraft carrier. The military campaign is in Caribbean waters targeting drug smugglers and threatening direct conflict with Venezuela.

Hegseth previously said that Operation Southern Spear "removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people."

The strike on Dec. 4 comes amid escalating criticism over the Trump administration's assault on alleged drug boats, including a follow-up strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean that killed two survivors as they clung to the wreckage. At least 21 strikes have killed at least 83 people since September.

Hegseth has said he supported the second strike but did not personally order the attack. He mentioned at a Cabinet meeting that he learned about the strike after it occurred, but defended the admiral, who he said authorized the attack.

Contributing: Francesca Chambers, George Petras, Janet Loehrke, Ramon Padilla, and Karina Zaiets, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US military says it killed 4 men in strike on suspected drug boat

Reporting by Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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