US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which is responsible for military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, said three men were killed in the attack on Friday, describing the operation as a “lethal kinetic strike” in an area of the Pacific Ocean that was a “known narco-trafficking route”.

No evidence was provided to support the US military’s claim that the three victims were involved in drug trafficking, according to Al Jazeera.

The killings on Friday raise the death toll from US President Donald Trump’s administration’s attacks on vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea to at least 148 people killed in some 43 attacks carried out by the US military since early September.

Latin American leaders, legal experts, and human rights workers have questioned the legality of the military campaign, accusing US forces of carrying out extrajudicial killings in international waters where Washington has no jurisdiction.

DID