US military action violated international human rights law

THE reported killing of 80 people in US military strikes on Caribbean boats - justified as part of a war on “narco-terrorists” - is nothing less than a grotesque violation of international law and human decency. Under the cover of anti-drug operations, Washington is conducting extrajudicial executions on the high seas, betraying any pretence of accountability.

- ADIEL ISMAIL | Mount View

Since September, the US has launched at least 20 strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 80 people. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth routinely describes those killed as “narco-terrorists” affiliated with “Designated Terrorist Organisations.” Yet, astonishingly, the US has produced no publicly available evidence that definitively links these vessels to drug smuggling — or that the people aboard were combatants, not ordinary civilians.