Washington [US], November 2 (ANI): After a lethal kinetic strike on 'a narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organisation (DTO) in the Caribbean,' US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said America will treat them exactly how 'we treated Al-Qaeda' and kill them.

The announcement came from US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who reaffirmed the administration's hardline stance against 'narco-terrorism.'

'Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organisation (DTO) in the Caribbean,' Hegseth wrote in a post on X.

https://x.com/SecWar/status/1984816590940987802

He said the vessel, 'like EVERY OTHER,' was known by US intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and was carrying narcotics.

Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters, Hegseth said. 'All three terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.'

Hegseth accused the narco-terrorists of trying to 'bring drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home -- and they will not succeed.' He vowed the Department would treat them 'EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda.'

He added, 'We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.'

The statement came a day after US President Donald Trump dismissed any plans to conduct strikes within Venezuela to curb drug trafficking in the region, clarifying that Washington's operations were limited to international waters.

This followed reports suggesting that the US was considering targeting cocaine facilities and trafficking routes inside Venezuela. When asked about these reports, Trump said, 'No, it's not true.'

Last week, Hegseth had ordered the US Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier strike group, the USS Gerald R Ford, to move from Europe to the Caribbean -- a move seen as part of the ongoing anti-narcotics campaign.

Earlier, US Senator Lindsey Graham had warned that land strikes in Venezuela were a 'real possibility,' signalling a potential escalation in Washington's actions against 'narco-trafficking' networks in Latin America.

Speaking on CBS News, Graham had revealed that 'President Trump told me yesterday that he plans to brief members of Congress when he gets back from Asia about future potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia.'

Meanwhile, the US continued to conduct airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific in recent weeks. Hegseth said that a recent airstrike in the eastern Pacific had targeted a boat carrying drugs, killing four people. It was the 14th strike since early September and the 15th boat destroyed, with the total death toll from these operations rising to at least 61.

The United Nations had urged the US to immediately halt such airstrikes and prevent the 'extrajudicial killing of people.'

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that 'over 60 people have reportedly been killed in a continuing series of attacks carried out by US armed forces against boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since early September, in circumstances that find no justification in international law.'

'These attacks, and their mounting human cost, are unacceptable. The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them,' Turk added. (ANI)