New US drug-boat strike adds pressure over Sept. 2 ‘survivor’ attack

This morning, new pressure on the Pentagon and a new U.S. strike, raising even more questions

Admiral Mitch Bradley, the Navy officer who oversaw the operation, spent Thursday behind closed doors with key lawmakers

And just hours later, the U.S. military launched another strike. Southern Command confirms late Thursday that U.S. forces carried out a lethal strike on a suspected drug boat

This time in the eastern Pacific, you see it right there, killing four men on board

A 21-second video posted online shows the moment missiles hit the vessel

The military says the boat was operated by a designated terrorist organization

and was carrying illegal narcotics along a known drug trafficking route. That strike landed the same day Bradley and Joint Chiefs Chair General Dan Cain

showed members the unedited video of the controversial September 2nd attack, including the follow-up strike that killed two survivors

Lawmakers came away with vastly different interpretations and opinions. Republicans say footage of the incident shows a lawful operation

Democrats say it raises new, grave questions about whether the U.S. killed men who were no longer a threat

Bradley also told lawmakers there was no order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill them all

directly rejecting public reporting about the operation Here Republican Senator Tom Cotton I want to thank Admiral Bradley and General Cain for coming to brief about the strikes on September 2nd

which were righteous strikes. These are narco-terrorists who are trafficking drugs that are destined for the United States

to kill thousands of Arkansans and millions of Americans. But top Democrats who saw the same video describe it as deeply troubling and said it needs to be released to the public

But what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service

You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion with a destroyed vessel who are killed by the United States

The September 2nd strike was the first in what's now a months-long military campaign against what the White House calls narco-terrorists

22 strikes, more than 87 people killed, including four in Thursday's operation

And this morning, Congress is demanding answers. What were the rules of engagement? Who gave the orders? And were the survivors ever a legitimate target

Several Democrats are calling for Hegseth to testify, for the full video to be released

and for the Pentagon to provide the legal rationale behind the mission

requests the administration has so far denied