The United States military said on Friday that it had struck another vessel suspected of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean, killing three people.

The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) posted an 11-second clip on social media platform X that showed a boat wading through waters before being hit by what the military called "a lethal kinetic strike" and exploding.

The vessel "was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,"  the statement from SOUTHCOM said.

US authorities did not provide any evidence for these claims.

Deadly US drug boat stikes

The Trump administration has carried out at least 38 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September in a bid to tackle international drug smuggling.

US President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation, saying that his country is in an  "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America.

Friday's attack takes the death toll from such operations to at least 133, as per official figures.

But the US has offered little evidence to back its claims of killing "narcoterrorists."

Critics have also voiced concerns over the legality of the deadly strikes in international waters.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that "some top cartel drug-traffickers" in the region "have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean."

Hegseth made the comments on his personal social media account and gave no further information supporting the claim.

Edited by: Zac Crellin