UN report: US drug boat strikes may be crimes against humanity

Saul said that even if targets could be identified as members of designated terrorist groups, they had not staged an armed attack on the US which would trigger a right to self-defence under international law. He concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law.

The report comes two days after the US military said it killed four people in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean. Southcom, which commands US forces in the region, stated in a release accompanying grainy video of the attack that 'Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking. The operation killed four narco-terrorists.'

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously said the overall operation is aimed at removing 'narco-terrorists from our hemisphere' and securing the US from 'the drugs that are killing our people'. The US military launched the operation, known as 'Southern Spear', in early September, though officials have not offered definitive evidence that the vessels targeted are involved in trafficking. Experts and Latin American leaders have questioned the legality of the strikes.