Death toll from U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats climbs above 200

Politics Death toll from U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats climbs above 200 with latest attack May 29, 2026 / 10:48 PM EDT / CBS/AP Add CBS News on Google The U.S. military said it carried out another strike Friday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the third attack this week and pushing the overall death toll above 200 people.U.S. Southern Command — which manages U.S. military operations in the region of Latin America south of Mexico, and the Caribbean — announced the latest strike in the monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence.While the military's social media announcements always include video of the attacks, this appears to be the first with the footage in color instead of black and white. The video shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it's hit and engulfed in a fireball. It cuts to what could be the boat in flames, surrounded by a large plume of parcels or some other objects spread around it in the water. Unclassified footage of a U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on May 29, 2026, which the U.S. military said killed three people.  U.S. Southern Command U.S. Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top U.S. commander in Latin America, who on Friday also met with Cuban military leaders near the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay.The attack raises the death toll to at least 202 people from the series of U.S. strikes that began in early September, with two other attacks announced Tuesday and Wednesday. The Trump administration has declared that the U.S. is at armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the flow of drugs into American c...