US strikes another alleged drug cartel vessel, expanding attacks to Pacific
President Donald Trump talks during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Oct. 9, 2025, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. military has carried out another airstrike on an alleged drug cartel vessel on Tuesday night, according to two U.S. officials, this time in the Pacific Ocean.
It is the eighth known U.S. strike against an alleged drug boat since early September.
There were no survivors of Tuesday night’s strike and it is believed that two to three people aboard were killed, according to the officials.
Tuesday night’s strike occurred in the waters west of Central America, according to one of the officials. The other seven airstrikes targeted alleged drug cartel vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
It is now believed that at least 34 individuals have been killed in these strikes carried out by the U.S. military.
CBS News was first to report this latest airstrike.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released video of strike on social media on Wednesday. Hegseth confirmed the strike killed two people and took place in the Eastern Pacific. He wrote that no U.S. forces were harmed in the strike.
“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice,” Hegseth posted on X.
The use of lethal military force is unprecedented and has raised legal questions. Past administrations relied on law enforcement to interdict drug shipments.The Trump administration’s defended the strikes as part of what they said is a “war” against cartels.
“They have faster boats. Some of these boats are seriously — I mean, they’re world-class speedboats — but they’re not faster than missiles,” Trump said last week.
Two people survived a U.S. strike earlier this month on a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean. Trump said that the survivors were being sent back to their home countries.
Steffen Trumpf/dpa (Photo by Steffen Trumpf/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Drone overflights again caused disruptions at Danish airports on Wednesday night, officials said, in the latest instance of unexplained drone sightings over sensitive facilities in the Scandinavian nation.
Danish officials held a press conference on Thursday morning detailing the latest incidents, which prompted the complete closure of Aalborg Airport — which is also used by the Danish armed forces — on the northern tip of Denmark’s Zealand island.
“Drones have been observed near Aalborg Airport and the airspace has been closed,” the Danish National Police said in a statement on Wednesday night. “The police are present and investigating further.”
Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said at a Thursday press conference that drones were also reported over the southern cities of Esbjerg and Sonderborg, as well as over the Fighter Wing Skrydstrup air base, which is home to Danish F-16 fighter jets.
“The goal of this kind of hybrid attack is to create fear,” Hummelgaard said. “It is to create discord and it is to make us afraid.”
The Danish government is planning to “acquire new capabilities for detection” and to present a bill that will “provide increased opportunities for infrastructure owners to also shoot down drones,” Hummelgaard added.
The latest reports came after Copenhagen Airport was forced to close for several hours on Monday night, as was Oslo Airport in southern Norway. Both capitals sit along the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits, home to busy shipping lanes which connect the North Sea to the Baltic Sea.
The origin or purpose of the drone flights is not yet clear. But Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a Thursday press conference, “There can be no doubt that everything points to this being the work of a professional actor when we are talking about such a systematic operation in so many locations at virtually the same time.”
“This is what I would define as a hybrid attack using different types of drones,” Poulsen said, adding that Copenhagen has options to respond through NATO, including by triggering the alliance’s Article 4 which calls for a formal consultation with allies.
“We have no evidence to make the direct link to Russia,” Poulsen added.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday that she considered the initial drone intrusions over Copenhagen and elsewhere to be “a serious attack against critical infrastructure in Denmark.”
Asked if Russia — drones from which have repeatedly violated NATO airspace in recent months — should be considered responsible, Frederiksen said, “I cannot reject in any way that it could be Russia.”
The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed the assertion. “A country that takes a serious position should probably not make such baseless accusations time and time again,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
And on Thursday, the Russian embassy in Denmark suggested the drone sightings “are a staged provocation.”
“Undoubtedly, they will be used as a pretext for further escalating tension in the interests of forces seeking by all means to prolong the Ukrainian conflict and extend it to other countries,” the embassy wrote on Telegram. “The Russian side firmly rejects the absurd speculations of involvement in the incidents.”
Danish police Chief Superintendent Jens Jespersen told reporters on Tuesday that authorities were investigating several theories as to the origin of the drones, including that they may have been launched from nearby ships.
Danish authorities identified three tankers with links to Russia — the Astrol 1, Pushpa and Oslo Carrier 3 — as possible launch points, Reuters reported.
Of the three, only the Pushpa was close to Aalborg on Wednesday night when the latest drone overflights were reported.
As of Thursday morning, open-source maritime tracking websites showed the Pushpa sailing southwest through the North Sea toward the English Channel, with its eventual destination listed as Vadinar in India.
The Ukrainian government’s “War Sanctions” website lists the Pushpa as part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers — vessels that are often uninsured and with unclear ownership which Moscow uses to evade international sanctions.
The Puspha also uses the name Boracay and sails under the flag of Benin, according to the Ukrainian government.
Bipin Joshi and Tamir Nimrodi, the two hostages whose fate in Gaza remained unknown, were not included on the list published by Hamas of the 20 living hostages expected to be released during Monday’s exchange of hostages held by Hamas and prisoners held by Israel.
Neither Hamas nor Israel released statements saying the two were deceased.
In addition to some 1,200 Israelis killed on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas kidnapped 251 men and women during the terror attack. The majority were later released in hostage exchanges in the two years since then.
Of the 48 hostages who were still in Gaza at the time of the new ceasefire deal, 26 were confirmed dead by Israeli officials. Twenty others were believed to be alive at the time, with two people’s fates unknown.
Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese agriculture student who was in Israel to study, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Alumim, according to The Times of Israel.
“We just want him back,” his sister said in August, according to the newspaper. “It’s too much for me and my family.”
Joshi was 22 years old when kidnapped, according to Nepal’s Kathmandu Post.
Joshi’s family released footage of Joshi on Wednesday they said was recovered by the Israel Defense Forces and shared with the family by Israeli intelligence officials. The footage was believed to have been filmed in November 2023.
It is unclear exactly when the IDF recovered the footage and shared it with the family. The family released a clip of the footage via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters on Wednesday.
“For many months, this footage was under strict censorship. Only recently were we granted permission to release it,” the Joshi family said in a statement with the video. “It is not easy for us to share it publicly, but we are in critical and historic days that will determine the fate of the 48 hostages, whether the living will return to their families and the deceased to a proper burial, or whether we will remain in pain without closure.”
Tamir Nimrodi was 18 years old when he was kidnapped barefoot and without his glasses, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Nimrodi, who had been serving with the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, was taken from a base near the Erez Crossing into the Gaza Strip, according to the Times of Israel
“He always said I was his best friend. … I pray for the chance to have moments with him again,” said his mom, Herut Nimrodi. “The emptiness in my heart is indescribable.”
(LONDON) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of two newly developed types of missiles, state media reported, launches that came as the United States and South Korea held their annual military drills to the south.
The two missiles tested on Saturday were designed to target aerial threats, including attack drones and cruise missiles, the Korea Central News Agency reported on Sunday.
State media reported few details on the projectiles, other than describing them as “improved” versions, saying they were “based on unique and special technology.”
The launches came days after the Monday start of “Ulchi Freedom Shield 25,” joint military exercises that are ongoing in South Korea. Those training exercises, which include live-fire drills, were scheduled to run through Thursday.
The U.S. State Department in announcing that the drills had begun said they were intended to reaffirm “the ironclad commitment between the U.S. and South Korea to defend their homelands.”
A North Korean military official described those exercises as destabilizing for the Korean Peninsula, accusing the United States and South Korea of “the destruction of balance of power in the region.”
A spokesperson for the Korean People’s Army told Rodong Sinmun, a state-owned newspaper, that the “reckless” drills were being run by “warmongers,” adding that the exercises were pushing the Korean Peninsula into “extreme tension.”
North Korean state media published on Sunday an image of Kim meeting with military officials, along with several images of missiles in mid-air. It was not immediately clear where the missile tests had taken place.
As the drills began on Monday, Kim was touring a North Korean naval destroyer, KCNA reported. He reportedly said during that visit that the U.S.-South Korea drills could “ignite a war” and that North Korea should push for a “rapid expansion of nuclearization.”
