Trump defends legality of US strikes on alleged drug boats

WASHINGTON 

US President Donald Trump defended the legality of recent American strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean, calling them a justified response to a “national security problem.”

“Yes, we have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that,” he told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office when asked about authorization for the strikes.

“If we do it by land, we may go back to Congress, but we have a national security problem…These drugs coming in killed 300,000 Americans last year, and that gives you legal authority,” he said.

Trump said the strikes targeted known traffickers operating in international waters.

“We know the people coming in, we know the boats, we know everything about them… If we don’t do it, we’re going to lose hundreds of thousands of people,” he added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump’s remarks, saying the missions were aimed at preventing deadly narcotics from reaching the US.

“There are people traveling in international waters headed towards the United States with hostilities in mind, which includes flooding our country with deadly drugs,” Rubio said.

Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the latest strike in the Pacific Ocean, carried out at Trump’s direction, hit a vessel operated by a designated terrorist organization involved in narcotics smuggling. Two people aboard were killed, he said, and no US forces were harmed.

The operations drew criticism from UN Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights Ben Saul.

“I condemn these strikes as illegal killings under international law,” said Saul. “There is no authority in international law for using military force on the high seas to kill suspected drug traffickers or narco gangs.”

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