RESTRICTION: USERS MUST CREDIT “SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH” HANDOUT, MUST NOT OBSCURE LOGO —EDITORIAL USE ONLY—


SHOTLIST

AT SEA (OCT. 30, 2025) (SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH – RESTRICTED)

1. AERIAL SHOT OF VESSEL BEING TARGETED AND HIT AT SEA - OCT. 30, 2025: The US carried out three strikes on four vessels allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, killing 14 people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday.

“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific,” Hegseth said on US social media platform X.

Hegseth said that the vessels were known by their intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.

He added that eight men were aboard the first vessel hit, four men aboard the second and three on the third. Fourteen narco-terrorists were killed and one person survived the attacks. “All strikes were in international waters with no US forces harmed,” Hegseth said.

The US Southern Command immediately initiated standard search-and-rescue (SAR) protocols for the survivor and Mexican SAR authorities accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue, the statement added.

“The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own,” Hegseth said. “These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” he added.

The attack marks the latest US strike on suspected drug-trafficking boats as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against “narco-terrorism.”