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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Jonathan Freedland

The Trump administration sinks to a new low – opening fire on drowning men

People protest against the US military's deployment and targeting of suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, in St Petersburg, Florida, 16 November 2025.
People protest against the US military's deployment and targeting of suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, in St Petersburg, Florida, 16 November 2025. Photograph: Dave Decker/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

The Trump administration looks ever more like a criminal enterprise – and now it seems to have added war crimes to its repertoire. Though even that may be too generous a description.

On Thursday, word came that the US military had launched yet another deadly strike on a small boat moving through international waters. This time the attack killed four people, bringing to at least 87 the number of people the US has killed in a series of 22 such strikes on what it says are drug boats – vessels carrying illicit narcotics in the Caribbean or eastern Pacific.

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