WATCH: Video shows US military strike on suspected drug-carrying submarine in Caribbean
The US military carried out the strike on the suspected drug-carrying vessel on Thursday, killing two people and taking two survivors into custody.
A video shared by US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social Platform appears to show the military strike on a submarine in the Caribbean accused of being a drug-carrying vessel.In the clip, a vessel can be seen moving through the waves, its front portion submerged inches below the water’s surface. Then, several explosions are seen, with at least one over the back of the vessel.The strike, carried out on Thursday, killed two people, according to Trump. Two survivors were taken into custody and later sent back to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia, according to Trump."It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route," Trump said in a social media post. "US Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics."Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed Saturday on X that the Colombian man who was detained aboard what he called a “narco submarine” was home."We are glad he is alive, and he will be prosecuted according to the law," Petro wrote in a brief post.The press office for Ecuador’s government said Saturday it was not immediately aware of plans for repatriation.With Trump’s statement on his Truth Social platform of the death toll, that means US military action against vessels in the region have killed at least 29 people.The president has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels.He is relying on the same legal authority used by the George W. Bush administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the 9/11 attacks, and that includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and to use lethal force to take out their leadership.Trump is also treating the suspected traffickers as if they were enemy soldiers in a traditional war.