By Idrees Ali and Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - The United States Coast Guard is searching for survivors of a U.S. military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump's administration has carried out more than 30 strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September in a campaign that has killed at least 110 people.
In a statement, the U.S. military's Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three vessels.
"Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels," Southern Command wrote on X.
Southern Command said later on Wednesday that it had carried out a strike on two vessels. It did not indicate where the strikes were carried out but said five people were killed as result.
U.S. SEARCHING FOR 8 SURVIVORS: OFFICIAL
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said eight people had abandoned their vessels and were being searched for.
The Coast Guard told Reuters it had deployed a C-130 aircraft to look for survivors and was working with vessels in the area.
This is not the first time there have been survivors of a U.S. strike under the Trump administration. In October, two survivors were repatriated to their home countries after surviving a U.S. military strike.
Later that month, Mexican authorities launched a search and rescue effort after another U.S. strike left a survivor. That individual was not found.
The decision to strike the vessels but not the survivors comes after it was revealed that during a September attack, the U.S. military carried out a follow-on strike against a suspected drug vessel that had two survivors on it.
The lethal strikes on drug vessels are part of a broader campaign that the Trump administration says is aimed at cutting off the supply of illegal drugs. Legal experts and Democratic lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes.
The strikes come amid a pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and a massive U.S. military buildup in the region.
Trump said on Monday the U.S. had "hit" an area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs, marking the first known time Washington has carried out land operations in Venezuela.
Officials said the land strike was not carried out by the U.S. military and Trump has previously said he has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali. Additional reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Rod Nickel and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
