The United States has said that it is releasing the two survivors of an American military strike on a suspected “drug-carrying vessel” in the Caribbean to their home countries in Ecuador and Colombia as President Donald Trump said it was his “great honor” to destroy the drug-carrying submarine with “four known narcoterrorists on board”.
The US military rescued the pair after two suspected “narco terrorists” were killed in the strike at the submersible vessel on Thursday, in what was at least the sixth such strike in the Caribbean by the US forces since September. The US president posted footage of Thursday’s operation in the Caribbean, which was part of the military’s campaign to target boats transporting drugs to America.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, “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.” He added, “US Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”
Trump said that at least 25,000 Americans “would have died” if the alleged drug carrying submarine was allowed to come on the US’ shore. The Republican leader informed that out of the four suspected terrorists, two were killed and the two surviving were being returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution.
In a post on X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed that the Colombian man who was detained aboard the vessel which the American authorities termed as “narco submarine” was home. Petro wrote, “We are glad he is alive, and he will be prosecuted according to the law.”
The death toll in the US military’s actions in the Caribbean against the alleged drug carrying vessels in the region has reached 29. The US president has justified the strikes carried out by the US military, arguing that America is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
