A top US Navy admiral ordered a second round of strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, the White House has confirmed.
The "double tap" strike on 2 September has drawn bipartisan scrutiny among US lawmakers. The Washington Post recently reported that two people survived the first blast and were still clinging to the burning vessel when they were killed, raising fresh legality questions.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth authorised the strikes but did not give an order to "kill everybody", as the report said.
"Admiral (Frank) Bradley worked well within his authority and the law" in ordering the additional strike, Leavitt said.
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The White House on Monday defended a U.S. admiral’s decision to carry out multiple strikes in September on a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs from Venezuela, saying he acted with authorization from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite critics raising concerns over the legality of targeting survivors. The Washington Post reported that a second strike was ordered to kill two people who had lived through the initial attack, allegedly to fulfil Hegseth’s directive that no one be left alive.
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