The White House has confirmed that the admiral overseeing US military operations against alleged drug-carrying boats had issued the order for a second strike.
According to Independent, the navy commander ordered the strike that killed two survivors, an attack which has intensified legal scrutiny into the Trump administration’s lethal campaign.
Following new reporting about the September 2 strike and allegations that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commanded military personnel to “kill everybody” on board the vessels, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley had issued the order to fire on the vessel in the Caribbean a second time.
At the time of the attack, Bradley led the Joint Special Operations Command, which operates under the US Special Operations Command and typically is responsible for performing classified military operations. He was later promoted to lead the parent organization.
Asked to clarify whether Hegseth had ordered the second strike on the boat, Leavitt told reporters that Bradley, not Hegseth, gave the order and stressed that the veteran naval officer was “well within his authority and the law” when he did.
“He directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat from narco terrorists was eliminated,” she said.
Leavitt added that the strikes were “conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”
The strike on September 2, the first among more than a dozen attacks that have killed more than 80 people in recent months, “was conducted in self defense to protect Americans” and “vital United States interests,” she said.
When two survivors emerged from the wreckage, Bradley issued an order to comply with Hegseth’s alleged instructions to “kill everybody,” according to The Washington Post, citing officials with direct knowledge of the operation.
