U.S. says 1 survivor in deadly strikes on alleged drug boats

Politics U.S. says 5 killed, 1 survivor in military strikes on alleged drug boats in eastern Pacific April 12, 2026 / 10:07 PM EDT / CBS/AFP Add CBS News on Google The U.S. military said Sunday it had killed five more people on boats alleged to be trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific, with one person surviving the strikes, bringing the controversial campaign's total death toll to at least 168.The strikes were carried out against two boats on April 11, U.S. Southern Command announced in a post on X, accompanied by aerial video of the attacks.As with previous strikes, the U.S. military said the boats were "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes." "Two male narco-terrorists were killed, and one narco-terrorist survived the first strike. Three male narco-terrorists were killed during the second strike," it said, without providing any evidence of the drug trafficking claim.After the strikes, Southern Command said it notified the U.S. Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue mission for the survivor. There was no immediate word on the status of that search. Applying total systemic friction on the cartels. On April 11, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted two lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence… pic.twitter.com/sRXTFYCWXu— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) April 12, 2026 The U.S. military began striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean last September. In at least six instances, people have survived the operations, spurring efforts to find and rescue them in most cases. Authorities have called off several of those searches, though in one October operation, two survivors were picked up by a Navy helicopter and repatriated to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.The military's handling of survivors has drawn intense scrutiny. During the first boat strike on S...