Washington DC - US forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday, bringing the death toll in the brutal campaign to at least 57.

President Donald Trump's administration began carrying out the strikes – which experts say are blatantly illegal and could constitute murder – in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific.

"A total of 14 narco-terrorists were killed during the three strikes, with one survivor. All strikes were in international waters with no US forces harmed," Hegseth said in a post on X about strikes carried out the day before.

"The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics," he claimed, providing no evidence beyond the usual snuff footage of the strikes gleefully posted by Trump and his cabinet members.

Hegseth said that US Southern Command "immediately" started searching for the sole survivor of the strikes, and that Mexican authorities "accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue."

He did not specify what happened to the survivor or if the person was found.

"We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them," Hegseth railed.

The US has also carried out a major buildup of military forces in Latin America that it says is aimed at countering drug trafficking, but many see as an attempt to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has accused Washington of "fabricating a war."