Washington DC - The US has conducted another strike on an alleged drug-running boat in international waters, killing three "narco-terrorists," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Sunday.

In a post on X, Hegseth said the strike, carried out on Friday, targeted a vessel affiliated with Colombia's ELN guerrilla group, which "was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics."

Hegseth didn't specify where the strike took place, but said the boat was operating in an area overseen by the Southern Command, which oversees US military operations in Latin America.

The attack is just the latest in a deadly campaign under President Donald Trump, purportedly aimed at halting the flow of drugs from Latin America, that has seen more than two dozen killed.

Donald Trump Trump administration joins Bluesky: "Heard this is a great place to research visa revocations"

The Trump administration has not provided any evidence that the people killed in the strikes were drug smugglers, and experts note that such summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who accused Washington of having killed a fisherman in an earlier strike, has called for criminal proceedings to be opened against Trump over the strikes.