White House says admiral directed second strike that killed alleged drug boat survivors in ‘self defense’

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Trump administration refuses to say whether survivors on suspected drug-trafficking vessels posed imminent threat

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The White House has confirmed that the admiral overseeing U.S. military operations against alleged drug-carrying boats had issued the order for a second strike that killed two survivors, an attack that has intensified legal scrutiny into the Trump administration’s lethal campaign.

Following new reporting about the September 2 strike and allegations that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commanded military personnel to “kill everybody” on board the vessels, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley had issued the order to fire on the vessel in the Caribbean a second time.

Bradley was “well within his authority and the law,” Leavitt told reporters Monday.

“He directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat from narco terrorists was eliminated,” she added.

The strike on September 2, the first among more than a dozen attacks that have killed more than 80 people in recent months, “was conducted in self defense to protect Americans” and “vital United States interests,” she said.

When two survivors emerged from the wreckage, Bradley issued an order to comply with Hegseth’s alleged instructions to “kill everybody,” according to The Washington Post, citing officials with direct knowledge of the operation.

The two men were then “blown apart in the water,” according to the report.

News of Hegseth’s alleged command follows intense legal scrutiny from international investigators and members of Congress alleging that the Trump administration’s deadly campaign amounts to illegal extrajudicial killings, which law-of-war experts speaking to The Independent have labeled outright murder and a war crime.

At the time of the attack, Bradley led the Joint Special Operations Command, which operates under the U.S. Special Operations Command and typically is responsible for performing classified military operations. He was later promoted to lead the parent organization.

Democratic and Republican members of both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee are pledging “vigorous oversight” of the Pentagon in the wake of the news.

Senator Roger Wicker, the GOP chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, said they have “directed inquiries” to the Defense Department “and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”

The Pentagon initially declined to comment on Hegseth’s alleged command, but the secretary later issued a lengthy statement on X defending the campaign without denying whether he ordered officials to “kill everybody” on the boats despite not posing any immediate threat to the United States.

“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,” he wrote on Sunday. “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”

This is a developing story

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