(MENAFN) The United States carried out a lethal strike on October 17 against a vessel reportedly linked to Colombia’s Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) guerrilla group and involved in narcotics trafficking, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday. All three men aboard were killed, and no U.S. personnel were harmed.

Hegseth said the operation, ordered by President Donald Trump, took place in international waters within the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility. U.S. intelligence reportedly determined that the vessel was traveling along a known narcotrafficking route and was transporting substantial quantities of drugs.

Describing those killed as “male narco-terrorists” on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Hegseth framed the strike as part of a broader campaign to treat drug-trafficking groups as terrorist organizations. “These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” he wrote. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”

U.S. officials noted that this strike is part of a series of recent counternarcotics operations targeting vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and adjacent waters. The Department of Defense has released limited operational details, though Hegseth shared video imagery of the strike alongside his announcement.

The ELN has long been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and other agencies. U.S. counterdrug and counterterrorism operations in the region fall under the Southern Command, which oversees Latin America south of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. In recent weeks, officials have intensified actions against vessels suspected of transporting large quantities of illicit drugs.

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