House and Senate committees have launched inquiries in response to reporting that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered that everyone on a vessel the US says was smuggling drugs in the Caribbean be killed. Hegseth gave the spoken command after two people appeared to have survived the initial US strike in September, per the Washington Post. The Republican-led House and Senate armed services committees announced over the weekend that they plan to conduct strict oversight of the operation in the Caribbean, NBC News reports.
The top Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker, and Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed, on the Senate panel issued a statement Friday saying, "The Committee has directed inquiries" to the Defense Department about the strike. GOP Rep. Mike Rogers and Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of the House panel said in a statement Saturday that they're "taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation," per NBC. Lawmakers have complained before that the Pentagon is providing little information about the strikes, including any legal justification for them.
The attacks were intended to be "lethal, kinetic strikes," Hegseth posted Friday night on X, per ABC News. "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." Some experts have disputed the legality of the strikes. The Geneva Conventions stipulate that combatants who are sick or were wounded in a conflict are to be taken in and cared for by either side.
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