Pentagon knew boat attack left survivors, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon knew there were survivors after a September attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The rationale for the second strike was that it was needed to sink the vessel, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly. The Trump administration says all 11 people aboard were killed.

What remains unclear was who ordered the strikes and whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was involved, one of the people said. The details are becoming crucial as lawmakers have launched investigations and are seeking to determine whether the U.S. acted lawfully during its military operations.

The questions are expected to emerge Thursday during a classified congressional briefing with the commander that the Trump administration says ordered the second strike, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley.

The Pentagon did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about the reported new details about the Sept. 2 attack.

Hegseth is under growing scrutiny over the department’s strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, and in particular the follow-on strike that reportedly killed survivors. Some legal experts and lawmakers say that strike would have violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict.

Hegseth has defended the second strike as emerging in the “fog of war,” saying during a Cabinet meeting this week at the White House that he didn’t see any survivors but also “didn’t stick around” for the rest of the mission.

The defense secretary has also said that Bradley, as the admiral in charge, “made the right call” in ordering the second hit, which he “had complete authority to do.”

President Donald Trump was asked Wednesday whether he would release the video of the follow-on strike, as leading Democratic lawmakers have demanded. He replied: “I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’d certainly release. No problem,” he told reporters.

The Trump administration has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, even though Congress has not approved any authorization for the use of military force in the region.

A strike later in September has led to the family of a Colombian man filing a formal challenge to the premier human rights watchdog in the Americas, arguing that his death was an extrajudicial killing. The petition from the family of Alejandro Carranza says the military bombed his fishing boat on Sept. 15 in violation of human rights conventions.

The follow-on strike on Sept. 2 was on the first vessel hit in what the Trump administration calls a counterdrug campaign that has grown to over 20 known strikes and more than 80 dead.

The information about the follow-on strike was not presented to lawmakers during a classified briefing in September, in the days after the incident. It was disclosed later, one of the people said, and the explanation provided by the department has been broadly unsatisfactory to various members of the national security committees in Congress.

In a rare flex of bipartisan oversight, the Armed Services committees in both the House and Senate swiftly announced investigations into the strikes as lawmakers of both parties raise questions.

Bradley is scheduled to appear Thursday in a classified briefing with the panels’ two Republican chairmen and two ranking Democratic members.