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US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth defends arguable 2nd onslaught connected alleged cause vessel successful the Caribbean Sea.
Published On 3 Dec 2025
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has denied seeing immoderate survivors from a subject onslaught connected an alleged drug-smuggling vessel successful the Caribbean Sea successful September, earlier the 2nd deadly strike, which has prompted calls for an probe into imaginable warfare crimes.
Speaking astatine a Cabinet gathering astatine the White House connected Tuesday, Hegseth said he watched the archetypal onslaught connected September 2 successful real-time but did not witnesser the arguable follow-up strike.
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“As you tin imagine, astatine the Department of War, we’ve got a batch of things to do, truthful I didn’t instrumentality around… I moved connected to my adjacent meeting,” Hegseth said astatine the gathering presided implicit by President Donald Trump. The Trump medication is calling the Department of Defense the Department of War, though the president insists helium is simply a peacemaker who has brokered aggregate ceasefire deals.
Hegseth said that Admiral Frank Bradley, who heads peculiar operations successful the US subject and was the ngo commandant for the September 2 attacks, had made “the close call” to transportation retired the 2nd onslaught and “eliminate the threat”.
“I did not personally spot survivors,” Hegseth said, adding that the country of the onslaught had been obscured by occurrence and smoke.
“This is called the fog of war.”
Hegseth said the Trump medication afloat supported Bradley and had empowered commanders to bash “difficult things successful the dormant of nighttime connected behalf of the American people”.
Hegseth’s comments came amid increasing demands for accountability implicit the double-tap strike, which Democratic lawmakers and ineligible scholars person condemned arsenic a apt warfare crime.
“Secretary Talk Show Host whitethorn person been experiencing the ‘fog of war,’ but that doesn’t alteration the information that this was an extrajudicial sidesplitting amounting to execution oregon a warfare crime,” US Senator Chris Van Hollen said connected X, referring to Hegseth’s erstwhile vocation arsenic a big connected Fox News.
“One happening is clear: Pete Hegseth is unfit to serve. He indispensable resign.”
Scrutiny of Hegseth’s relation has mounted since The Washington Post reported past week that subject commanders carried retired a 2nd onslaught connected 2 survivors clinging to the vessel’s wreckage to comply with his directive that nary 1 beryllium near alive.
Hegseth blasted The Washington Post report, which cited 2 unnamed radical acquainted with the matter, arsenic “fake news”, “fabricated” and “inflammatory”.
The Pentagon’s ain manual connected the laws of warfare calls orders to occurrence connected the survivors of shipwrecked vessels “clearly illegal”.
The Trump medication has carried retired strikes connected astatine slightest 22 vessels successful the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific arsenic portion of a arguable subject run against alleged cause traffickers.
At slightest 83 radical person been killed successful the strikes, which galore ineligible scholars accidental magnitude to extrajudicial killings and are amerciable nether planetary law.
The Trump medication has truthful acold not made nationalist immoderate grounds to backmost its assertions that these boats were carrying narcotics, were headed to the US, oregon that they were being commandeered by members of proscribed cartels.
English (US) ·