The White House has defended a U.S. admiral's decision to conduct multiple strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessel in September, saying he had Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's authorisation, even as critics questioned the legality of a strike on survivors.
The Washington Post had reported that a second strike was ordered to kill two survivors from the initial strike and to comply with an order by Hegseth that everyone be killed.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would not have wanted a second strike on the boat and said Hegseth denied giving such an order.
But White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Hegseth had authorised Admiral Frank Bradley to conduct the strikes on 2 September.
"Secretary Hegseth authorised Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated," Leavitt said.
Leavitt said the strike was conducted in "self defence" to protect U.S. interests, took place in international waters and was in line with the law of armed conflict.
Starting in September, the U.S. military has carried out at least 19 strikes against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts of Latin America, killing at least 76 people.
Critics have questioned the legality of the strikes, and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have pledged to look into them.
Trump has flagged the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. On Saturday, he said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered "closed in its entirety," but gave no further details, stirring anxiety and confusion in Caracas.
Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had spoken to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. considers an illegitimate leader, but Trump declined to provide details of the conversation.
Kazakhstan-linked hackers stole thousands of national security documents from Tajikistan, a cybersecurity company has said. ...
Four Turkish military personnel have been killed after an S-70 helicopter crashed in the eastern province of Malatya on Thursday, Türkiye'...
Microsoft struggled to restore its services on Friday after a major outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot across the United States and Asia-P...
European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a stark warning at this year's COP31 summit, saying the climate crisis iss advancing faster than governments' efforts to contain it.
Iran will not let a single particle of its enriched nuclear material leave the country, and any new U.S. attack would be met with strikes on distant American bases, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei has said.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is stepping down amid reports linking him to a woman suspected by U.S. authorities of spying for China, throwing the future of the $4 trillion chipmaker into uncertainty.
Four million workers across Spain joined a general strike on Wednesday over the country’s deepening housing crisis, unions said, bringing disruption to factories, ports, shops and public transport just weeks before a snap general election.
Microsoft struggled to restore its services on Friday after a major outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot across the United States and Asia-Pacific region.
President Vladimir Putin agreed on Thursday to let European representatives join the next round of Ukraine peace talks while the United States continues to work towards what could become the largest prisoner exchange of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Azerbaijan and the UK have pledged to strengthen defence, trade and education cooperation after signing a joint declaration elevating relations to a strategic level in Dublin, Ireland on Thursday (12 November).
More than 333,000 people have been forced from their homes in Yemen since the beginning of August as fighting has escalated, including more than 24,000 in the past week alone, the United Nations said on Thursday.
A court in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad has sentenced human rights lawyer Maria Bontsler to 12 years in prison on treason charges, after prosecutors accused her of passing sensitive information to Ukraine.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment