US strikes ELN-linked drug boat, killing 3

By Alperen Aktas

ISTANBUL (AA) - The US carried out a lethal strike on Oct. 17 against a vessel it says was affiliated with Colombia’s Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) guerilla group and engaged in narcotics smuggling, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday, adding all three men on board were killed and no US forces were harmed.

Hegseth said the strike was ordered by President Donald Trump and took place in international waters within the US Southern Command area of responsibility.

He said US intelligence determined that the vessel was travelling along a known narcotrafficking route and was carrying substantial amounts of narcotics.

In a post on the US social media company X’s platform, Hegseth described those killed as “male narco-terrorists” and framed the US campaign against drug-smuggling groups as part of a broader effort to treat such organizations as terrorist threats.

“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” he wrote.

“The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”

US news outlets and officials said the strike is the latest in a series of recent counternarcotics operations in the region that have involved strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels.

The Department of Defense has released limited operational detail publicly. Hegseth posted video imagery alongside his announcement.

The US State Department and other agencies have long labeled the ELN as a terrorist organization. US counterdrug and counterterrorism efforts in the Caribbean and adjacent waters fall under the US Southern Command’s mandate, which covers Latin America south of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

Officials have in recent weeks stepped up operations against vessels suspected of carrying large quantities of illicit drugs.