Name: Pentagon announces new boat strike
Uploaded: 2025-12-05T14:38:32.102Z
Duration: 3 min 11 s
Description: The Pentagon announced another strike against an alleged drug-carrying boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This comes as lawmakers react to a classified briefing on the controversial Sept. 2 strikes targeting a vessel near Venezuela.

The Pentagon announced another strike against an alleged drug-carrying boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This comes as lawmakers react to a classified briefing on the controversial Sept. 2 strikes targeting a vessel near Venezuela.

Washington

The U.S. military conducted a strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Eastern Pacific, resulting in four fatalities. This operation is part of a series of more than 20 similar strikes since September, which have collectively resulted in at least 87 deaths. 

Lawmakers are divided over the justification and handling of these strikes, with some expressing concern after viewing video footage of the incidents. The Senate Armed Services Committee is investigating the matter, and further briefings or hearings may be held as the inquiry progresses.

Pentagon announces new boat strike

The U.S. military killed four people in its latest strike on a suspected drug vessel. This hit, though, was in the Eastern Pacific. The U.S. Southern Command posted footage of the attack on social media last night. More than 20 have been carried out since September. At least 87 people have been killed so far. Now this comes as lawmakers reveal the commander who oversaw strikes back in September told them Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth had not ordered to, quote, kill everybody on board, as reported by The Washington Post. Nonetheless, senators remain at odds over the legitimacy of the strikes. If you think these strikes are justified and righteous, as I do, and I want them to continue, then of course the second strike, when you have two survivors who are trying to flip their boat back over and continue on their mission, remain in the battle. I think it'd be hard to watch the series of videos and not be troubled by it. So I don't reach the same conclusion that Senator Cotton does if you're describing it as righteous. CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nicole Killian kicks us off this hour, joining us from Capitol Hill. Nicole, good morning. So this was a closed-door briefing, and we just heard there from a Republican and Democratic lawmaker. Help us understand any new details, key revelations they're sharing about what they saw, what they heard. Well, I think the key one was what you pointed out in your intro that Admiral Bradley conveyed to lawmakers that Secretary Hexheph did not give any type of kill-them-all-style order, which, again, kind of emanated from this report that we saw a couple of days ago in The Washington Post. Nonetheless, after seeing parts of this video of this strike in question, lawmakers still had some pretty serious concerns about the conduct and how this situation was handled. Take a listen to what Congresswoman Houlihan told our Major Garrett yesterday on the takeout. We here in Washington are incapable of having the same view of things, and I think that what I've heard is that these were devastating videos and that these were literally people clinging for their lives to very small pieces of the boat, of the hull of the boat. What clearly other people saw was a righteous killing, and there needs to be truth somewhere there. Now, I did have a chance to speak with Roger Wicker, who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He told me, broadly speaking, that he believes that he was briefed by experienced and capable leaders. He didn't want to go into a lot of details of the actual briefings, but I did ask him if he anticipates holding additional hearings on this issue, particularly because the committee has launched an investigation into this incident. He said he does believe that other House and Senate lawmakers may want more information or may want to be briefed additionally. So how this plays out in terms of whether we see more briefings take place, potentially even a hearing again, and the timetable for all of this remains to be seen.

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