The U.S. Has Killed More than 140 People in Boat Strikes. We’re Tracking Them All.
Since September, the Trump administration has conducted an undeclared war in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing scores of civilians. The Intercept is chronicling all publicly declared U.S. attacks and providing a tracker with information on each strike.
The administration insists the attacks are permitted because the U.S. is engaged in “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations,” or DTOs. President Donald Trump has justified the attacks, in a War Powers report to Congress, under his Article II constitutional authority as commander in chief of the U.S. military and claimed to be acting pursuant to the United States’ inherent right of self-defense as a matter of international law. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has also produced a classified opinion that provides legal cover for the lethal strikes.
Experts in the laws of war and members of Congress, from both parties, say the strikes are illegal extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. The summary executions are a significant departure from standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement agencies arrested suspected drug smugglers.
The Pentagon has repeatedly withheld information on the attacks from members of Congress and the American public, despite mounting questions from lawmakers about the legality of these deadly strikes.
So The Intercept is publishing a strike tracker documenting America’s newest war. The locations and casualty figures are drawn from information provided by U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Office of the Secretary of War, and social media posts by Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Number of Strikes |
Total Killed |
Total Captured |
| 43 | 148 | 2 |
February 20, 2026
Death toll: 3
Theater: Pacific Ocean
Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
February 16, 2026
- Death toll: 11 killed in three strikes, 8 of them in the Pacific Ocean, 3 in the Caribbean Sea.
- Theater: 2 strikes in the Pacific, 1 in the Caribbean.
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
February 13, 2026
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Carribean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
February 9, 2026
- Death toll: 2 initially, leaving one survivor. The survivor was not found and is presumed to be dead, bringing the total to 3.
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
February 5, 2026
- Death toll: 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
January 23, 2026
- Death toll: 2 initially, leaving one survivor. The Coast Guard failed to find the survivor, who is presumed to be dead, bringing the total to 3.
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 31, 2025
- Death toll: 5 killed in two strikes, 3 aboard one ship and 2 aboard the other
- Theater: Unspecified
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 30, 2025
- Death toll: 11 killed in three strikes. U.S. Southern Command initially announced that three people were killed in a strike on one boat, and an unnamed number of survivors evacuated the other two boats. The Coast Guard later called off its search for the survivors. After questions from The Intercept, SOUTHCOM added eight more to the death toll.
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 29, 2025
- Death toll: 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 22, 2025
- Death toll: 1
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 18, 2025
- Death toll: 5 killed in two strikes, death tolls of 3 and 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 17, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 15, 2025
- Death toll: 8 killed in three strikes, death tolls of 3, 2, and 3
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
December 4, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 15, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 10, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: “Narcoterrorists”
November 9, 2025
- Death toll: 6 killed in two strikes, 3 aboard each ship
- Theater: Both in Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organizations
November 6, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 4, 2025
- Death toll: 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
November 1, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 29, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 27, 2025
- Death toll: 14 killed in three separate strikes — with one reported survivor (eight aboard one boat, four on another and three on the last). The Mexican Navy failed to find the survivor, who is presumed to be dead, bringing the total to 15.
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 23 or 24, 2025
- Death toll: 6
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Tren de Aragua (Venezuela)
October 22, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 21, 2025
- Death toll: 2
- Theater: Pacific Ocean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 17, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Ejército de Liberación Nacional (Colombia)
October 16, 2025
- Death toll: 2 killed, 2 captured and later repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador.
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: “Narcoterrorists”
October 14, 2025
- Death toll: 6
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
October 2, 2025
- Death toll: 4
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
September 19, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Unspecified Designated Terrorist Organization
September 15, 2025
- Death toll: 3
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: “Drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists”
September 2, 2025
- Death toll: 11
- Theater: Caribbean
- Target: Tren de Aragua (Venezuela)