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US President Donald Trump on Monday justified the military’s decision to fire a second missile in a heavily scrutinised attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, claiming that two suspected drug smugglers were trying to right the vessel after it had capsized in the initial strike.
Trump’s comments came as his administration faces calls from Democratic lawmakers to release footage of the 2 September operation, which killed nine people aboard the boat in an initial strike and then two more who managed to survive.
On Monday, the US leader backtracked on whether he would release the video footage of the second strike.
“They were trying to return the boat back to where it could float, and we didn’t want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs,” Trump said on Monday.
When asked by a reporter about his comments last week suggesting he was open to releasing footage of the second strike, Trump denied that was his position and bitterly attacked the reporter as “obnoxious” and “terrible.”
“Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me,” Trump said.
Trump, however, last Wednesday, in an exchange with reporters about the strike footage, said: “Whatever they have, we’d certainly release.”
At least 87 people killed in 22 known strikes
The 2 September operation was the first in what has become a months-long series of US strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that the Trump administration says are targeting drug smugglers working on behalf of cartels, including some controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
At least 87 people have been killed in 22 known strikes. Despite bipartisan congressional opposition, Trump has broadly justified the campaign as necessary for his administration to stem the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the United States. He claims the US is in armed conflict with narco-terrorists.
Hegseth said.
Lawmakers on Capitol hill are demanding that the Pentagon hand over “unedited video of strikes” against drug cartels to Congress, threatening to withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget if it doesn’t. The provision is included in the $900 billion defence bill the House is expected to vote on later this week.
On Saturday, Hegseth said in a Fox News interview at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California that officials were reviewing the video, but he did not commit to releasing it. “Whatever we were to decide to release, we’d have to be very responsible about it.”
The Pentagon on Monday did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of Hegseth’s review or confirm Trump’s assertion that the suspects appeared to be trying to turn over the vessel before the second strike was fired.