US lawmakers split along party lines after being briefed on Thursday on a strike against a drug boat in the Caribbean, with Democrats saying they were horrified by a video showing survivors in distress being killed, while a Republican lawmaker defended the strike as legal.
On September 2, the US military destroyed a drug vessel in the Caribbean, killing 11 traffickers. Officials have said the operation included a follow-on strike against the vessel after an initial attack when there were still survivors.
Admiral Frank Bradley, who was the head of the Joint Special Operations Command at the time, and top US General Dan Caine on Thursday briefed lawmakers on the operation and showed an unedited video of the follow-on strike.
"You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States," Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the house intelligence committee, told reporters after the briefing.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the senate armed services committee, said he was "deeply disturbed" by the video and said it should be released to the public.
"This briefing confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump Administration’s military activities," Reed added in a statement.
But Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the Republican chairman of the senate intelligence committee, said Bradley and Hegseth did exactly what was expected of them.
"I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight," Cotton said, adding it was possible that other drug boats could have come to their aid and recovered the drugs onboard.
Before the briefing, a US official said Bradley, who now heads US Special Operations Command, would tell lawmakers that the survivors were legitimate targets for a second attack because their vessel was still believed to contain illegal narcotics.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
"Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat," Hegseth said.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Michael Perry and Deepa Babington)
