(MENAFN) U.S. Senators Roger Wicker and Jack Reed announced on Saturday that they will conduct “vigorous oversight” regarding reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly ordered strikes on boats suspected of carrying drugs across the Caribbean and Pacific, according to reports.

Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Reed, a Democratic committee member, said the panel will investigate claims that Hegseth instructed military forces to “fire on everyone aboard a boat suspected of drug smuggling” in September. “The Committee has directed inquiries to the (Department of Defense), and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances,” they said. “The Committee is aware of recent news reports and the Department of Defense’s initial response — regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”

The Washington Post reported that a military strike near Trinidad and Tobago resulted in the deaths of 11 people aboard a vessel suspected of drug trafficking. The report also alleged that, to follow Hegseth’s purported instruction, Admiral Frank Bradley ordered a second strike targeting two survivors after the first attack. A source told the newspaper that Hegseth had allegedly given an order “to kill everyone on the boat.”

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