UPDATE 3-US military strikes suspected drug vessel in the Pacific

(Adds details in paragraph 1,3,4) By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. military killed two alleged drug smugglers in a strike against a vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday, an attack that expands the Trump administration's use of the military in its counter-narcotics campaign. The strike is the first known U.S. military operation in the Pacific since President Donald Trump started a new military offensive against the drug trade that has led to at least seven strikes in the Caribbean and dramatically raised U.S. tensions with Venezuela and Colombia. "The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics," Hegseth said, without providing evidence. He posted a roughly 30-second video on X, which appeared to show a vessel traveling in the water before exploding. The strikes in the Caribbean have killed at least 32 people, but the Trump administration has provided few details, such as how many alleged drugs the targeted vessels were carrying or what specific evidence it had to suggest they were carrying drugs. Legal experts have questioned why the U.S. military is carrying out the strikes, instead of the Coast Guard, which is the main U.S. maritime law enforcement agency, and why other efforts to halt the shipments are not made before resorting to deadly strikes. The latest strike, which was first reported by CBS News, comes against the backdrop of a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops. In August, the Coast Guard launched an operation, known as Operation Viper, to interdict drugs in the Pacific Ocean. As of October 15, the Coast Guard said it had seized more than 100,000 pounds of cocaine. It was unclear why the administration carried out a strike in this instance instead of interdicting the vessel. Last week, Reuters was first to report that two alleged drug traffickers survived a U.S. military strike in the Caribbean. They were rescued and brought to a U.S. Navy warship before being repatriated to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador. (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, Editing by Franklin Paul, Chizu Nomiyama and Nia Williams)

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