{"id":4161,"date":"2025-12-03T09:58:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=4161"},"modified":"2025-12-03T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:58:32","slug":"us-defence-chief-says-he-did-not-see-survivors-before-follow-up-boat-strike-military-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=4161","title":{"rendered":"US defence chief says he did not see survivors before follow-up boat strike | Military News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"article__subhead\"><em>US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth defends controversial second strike on alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-dates\">\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Published On 3 Dec 2025<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\">3 Dec 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-share\" data-testid=\"rich-share\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"rich-share__button-wrapper\"><button class=\"rich-share__button row\" aria-expanded=\"false\"><\/p>\n<p>Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n<p><svg class=\"icon icon--share2 icon--primary icon--16 \" viewbox=\"0 0 20 16\" version=\"1.1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><title>share2<\/title><path fill=\"#000\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M11.688 9.048c-.659 0-1.252.282-1.673.733l-4.92-2.45c.016-.115.028-.232.028-.352 0-.117-.011-.23-.027-.343l4.913-2.423a2.285 2.285 0 0 0 1.68.739C12.964 4.952 14 3.899 14 2.6 14 1.302 12.965.25 11.688.25S9.377 1.302 9.377 2.601c0 .117.01.23.027.343L4.49 5.367a2.285 2.285 0 0 0-1.68-.739C1.536 4.628.5 5.681.5 6.979c0 1.299 1.035 2.35 2.312 2.35.659 0 1.252-.281 1.673-.731l4.92 2.45a2.357 2.357 0 0 0-.029.351c0 1.299 1.035 2.351 2.312 2.351S14 12.698 14 11.399s-1.035-2.35-2.312-2.35Z\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"rich-share__social-text\">Share<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has denied seeing any survivors from a military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea in September, before a deadly second attack that has prompted calls for an investigation into possible war crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Hegseth said he watched the initial strike on September 2 in real-time but did not witness the controversial follow-up strike.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 4 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cAs you can imagine, at the Department of War, we\u2019ve got a lot of things to do, so I didn\u2019t stick around\u2026 I moved on to my next meeting,\u201d Hegseth said at the meeting presided over by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration is calling the Department of Defense the Department of War, though the president insists he is a peacemaker who has brokered multiple ceasefire deals.<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth said that Admiral Frank Bradley, who heads special operations in the US military and was the mission commander for the September 2 attacks, had made \u201cthe right call\u201d to carry out the second strike and \u201celiminate the threat\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not personally see survivors,\u201d Hegseth said, adding that the scene of the strike had been obscured by fire and smoke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is called the fog of war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth said the Trump administration fully supported Bradley and had empowered commanders to do \u201cdifficult things in the dead of night on behalf of the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth\u2019s comments came amid growing demands for accountability over the double-tap strike, which Democratic lawmakers and legal scholars have condemned as a likely war crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecretary Talk Show Host may have been experiencing the \u2018fog of war,\u2019 \u00a0but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that this was an extrajudicial killing amounting to murder or a war crime,\u201d US Senator Chris Van Hollen said on X, referring to Hegseth\u2019s previous career as a host on Fox News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne thing is clear: Pete Hegseth is unfit to serve. He must resign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scrutiny of Hegseth\u2019s role has mounted since The Washington Post reported last week that military commanders carried out a second strike on two survivors clinging to the vessel\u2019s wreckage to comply with his directive that no one be left alive.<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth blasted The Washington Post report, which cited two unnamed people familiar with the matter, as \u201cfake news\u201d, \u201cfabricated\u201d and \u201cinflammatory\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon\u2019s own manual on the laws of war calls orders to fire on the survivors of shipwrecked vessels \u201cclearly illegal\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has carried out strikes on at least 22 vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific as part of a controversial military campaign against alleged drug traffickers.<\/p>\n<p>At least 83 people have been killed in the strikes, which many legal scholars say amount to extrajudicial killings and are illegal under international law.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has so far not made public any evidence to back its assertions that the boats were carrying narcotics, were headed to the US, or that they were being commandeered by members of proscribed cartels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth defends controversial second strike on alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea. Published On 3 Dec 20253 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has denied seeing any survivors from a military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}