The White House said today that a Navy admiral acted "within his authority and the law" when he ordered a second strike on a vessel carrying suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea during a US military operation in September that has been the subject of heated bipartisan debate in the US Congress, the Associated Press reported.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt provided the rationale for the September 2 strike after lawmakers from both parties on Sunday announced their support for a congressional review of US military strikes on vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. ocean.
The congressmen argued with a published by the "Washington Post" article, according to which US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order for a second strike, which killed the survivors of the boat in the incident in September.
In her comments to journalists, Levitt did not dispute the facts of the "Washington Post" article that there were survivors of the initial strike during the incident. Her explanation came after US President Donald Trump, asked about the incident yesterday, said: – – not a re-strike.
"Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these strikes," Levitt said, referring to Vice Admiral Frank Bradley of the U.S. Navy, who was then commander of Joint Special Operations Command. "Admiral Bradley acted within his authority and the law, directing the operation to ensure that the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated," Levitt added.
Congressmen said they did not know whether the "Washington Post" article from last week was credible, and some Republicans were skeptical. However, they said reports of attacks on survivors of the initial strike raised serious legal concerns and merited further investigation.
Venezuela's National Assembly postponed on Monday an emergency session to discuss the creation of a commission to investigate deadly attacks ordered by the U.S. government on suspected drug trafficking vessels off the coast of Venezuela and in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Reuters reported.
A Venezuelan parliament spokesman said the session had been rescheduled for the next day, when regular debates were due to take place, without giving a reason for the postponement.
The U.S. military has carried out at least 21 strikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans since September, killing at least 83 people.
Earlier yesterday, the White House The House of Representatives announced that US President Donald Trump will convene the National Security Council amid the crisis in relations with Venezuela, after the day before he himself admitted that he had spoken with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The other day, the speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, who is also Maduro's chief negotiator with Washington, announced today's extraordinary session after meeting with the families of the victims of the US attacks. He indicated that the creation of the commission is a step to protect the families.
Rodriguez added that the investigation will be based on an article in the “Washington Post“, which states that US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of everyone on board a vessel during a US attack in September.