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.

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.

Asked to clarify whether Hegseth had ordered the second strike on the boat, Leavitt told reporters that Bradley — not Hegseth — had given the order and stressed that the veteran naval officer was “well within his authority and the law” when he did.

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

Leavitt added that the strikes were “conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”

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.

According to the Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual, persons who have been “wounded, sick, or shipwrecked” on the high seas are supposed to be “respected and protected in all circumstances” by U.S. forces, even during hostilities. The Defense Department manual specifically states that “making them the object of attack is strictly prohibited.”

But when pressed on how her claim that the strikes on the survivors were “in accordance with the law of armed conflict” when the Pentagon’s own guidance explicitly states that attacks on shipwrecked persons are “strictly prohibited,” Leavitt declined to offer an explanation and instead repeated her early prepared statement.

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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