A US admiral acting under the authority of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike that targeted survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug smuggling boat, the White House said on Monday.

The legality of the Trump administration's deadly strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific has been questioned, and reports of the follow-up attack on survivors triggered further accusations of a possible war crime.

Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for "imposing regime change" in Caracas and rejected a "slave's peace" for the region, amid mounting fears of US military action.

A total of 11 people were killed in the two strikes in early September, the first in a months-long military campaign that has so far left more than 80 dead.

Trump's administration insists that it is effectively at war with alleged "narco-terrorists", and the White House said Admiral Frank Bradley, who currently leads US Special Operations Command, had acted legally and properly in ordering a second strike.

Bradley "worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated", White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.

Hegseth "authorised Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes", she said.

With pressure on the Pentagon chief, Hegseth appeared to stress the decision was Bradley's.

"I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made – on the September 2 mission and all others since," he posted on Monday evening on X, calling Bradley "an American hero”.

Some military personnel under the condition of anonymity told the *Washington Post that this is "protect Pete (expletive)".

Another military official told the publication that Leavitt's statement "left it up to interpretation" who was responsible for the second strike and implored the White House to provide more clarity.

"We will eventually find out what really happened," promised Republican Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has opened an investigation into the matter.

Democrats also pounced on the issue, with Senator Chris Murphy accusing Hegseth of "passing the buck”.

"Both Republicans and Democrats are coming to the conclusion that this was an illegal, wildly immoral act, and he is shifting the blame," Murphy told broadcaster CNN.

Congressman Mike Turner, a Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers have yet to be briefed on the "double-tap" strike.

"People have been very concerned about how these strikes have been operated," Turner said on the same news broadcast.

US media reported last week that an initial September 2 strike left two people alive who were killed in a subsequent attack to fulfill Hegseth's orders, but Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell insisted that "this entire narrative was false”.

Subsequent strikes that left survivors were followed by search-and-rescue efforts that recovered two people in one case and failed to find another later in October.

International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on incapacitated combatants.

The Pentagon's Law of War Manual states that shipwrecked persons cannot be knowingly attacked and must receive medical care unless they act with hostility or attempt escape.

George Washington University law professor Laura Dickinson said most legal experts do not believe the boat strikes qualify as armed conflict, so lethal force would only be allowed as a last resort.

"It would be murder outside of armed conflict,” she said.

Even in war, the killing of survivors "would likely be a war crime”.

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