Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Friday denied ordering a second strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel to kill all 11 crew members on September 2.
Hegseth was responding to a report by the Washington Post on Friday that accused Hegseth of verbally ordering military personnel to kill all 11 crew members by carrying out a second strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel on Sept. 2.
That strike was the first of many targeting drug vessels in international waters, but the Washington Post only cited anonymous sources to back its claim, which the Defense Department has called fabricated and “fake news,” according to The Guardian.
“We told the Washington Post that this entire narrative was false yesterday,” Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post on Friday.
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“These people just fabricate anonymously sourced stories out of the whole cloth,” Parnell continued.
“Fake news is the enemy of the people,” he added.
Hegseth went further, calling the Washington Post report “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”
The Washington Post said Hegseth’s alleged verbal order resulted in a second strike on the vessel as two surviving crew members clung to the wreckage, which killed them.
The report on Friday prompted Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., to order inquiries into the matter to determine the facts.
Hegseth said every strike carried out against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean has been legal and only targeted members of designated foreign terrorist organizations.
A group of “former military attorneys” on Saturday released a report saying international law prohibits the targeting of attack survivors and requires the attacking force to “protect, rescue and, if applicable, treat them as prisoners of war,” the Washington Post reported.
The U.S. military has struck 21 vessels whose crews were alleged to be smuggling drugs to the United States and killed 83, according to USA Today.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One on Tuesday.
