Trump vows to consider US military strike that killed survivors of boat in the Caribbean

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he would look into media reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike on a target boat in the Caribbean, with the aim of killing two people who had survived a first missile strike.

Trump also said he “wouldn’t have wanted it” to strike the boat again in the September 2 incident, the first to be announced in the Caribbean and said Washington was aimed at combating the drug trade.

The Washington Post and CNN revealed on Friday that the US military, after striking a first blow to the boat that caught fire, followed it up with a second strike to eliminate two survivors who were clinging to the burning boat.

The Washington Post and CNN, citing sources, reported that the military had received instructions before the operation from US Secretary of War Pete Hegsey to kill everyone on board.

Trump defended Hegseth, telling reporters aboard the presidential plane on Sunday: “I’ll know more about that, but Pitt said he didn’t order the killing of these two men”.

Asked if he would personally like to launch a second strike to kill survivors, Trump said: “We’ll look into it, but no, I wouldn’t want to… Nor in a second strike… The first blow was very lethal”.

From his part, Hegseth responded by denouncing what he called “misleading news”.

Since September, the US military has been conducting strikes against boats in the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.

The Trump administration has provided no concrete evidence to support its accusations of drug trafficking by boats, and many experts have questioned the legality of the operations.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the US House Armed Services Committee announced on Saturday that they were taking steps to prepare a full report on the operation.

Their Senate counterparts issued a similar statement late Friday.