US strikes on alleged drug boats could be crimes against humanity, says UN

Meanwhile, a UN report has concluded that recent US airstrikes on vessels allegedly trafficking drugs breached international law and could constitute crimes against humanity.

Key points

• Another outspoken critic of Operation Southern Spear, Colombia's left-wing president at the time, Gustavo Petro, stood down in August after a Trump-backed candidate won June's presidential election.
• "There are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks that killed 223 people constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law, " Saul concluded.
• BBC News has contacted the White House and State Department for a response to the report.
• The US military introduced the operation, known as "Southern Spear", in early September.
• The report comes two days after the US military remarked it killed four residents in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean.

For context, the report by Special Rapporteur Ben Saul remarked since September last year there had been at least 68 US strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, outside US territorial waters. It killed more than 220 residents.

According to Saul, even if targets could be identified as members of designated terrorist groups, they had not staged an armed attack on the US which would trigger a right to self-defence under international law.

Meanwhile, the report comes two days after the US military remarked it killed four residents in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean.

"Confirmed intelligence made public the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking. The operation killed four narco-terrorists, " Southcom. It commands US forces in the region, remarked in an official note concerning the latest attack, which was accompanied by a grainy video.

But in a briefing note published by the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, Saul stated that "such attacks amount to serial extrajudicial killings in violation of the right to life, being unjustified in national or personal self-defence or under international humanitarian law, the international law of the sea, narcotics suppression conventions, or international counter-terrorism law".

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously remarked the overall operation is aimed at removing "narco-terrorists from our hemisphere" and securing the US from "the drugs that are killing our people".

For context, the US military introduced the operation, known as "Southern Spear", in early September.

Nevertheless, office-holders have not offered definitive evidence that the vessels targeted are involved in trafficking.

Since the beginning, experts have questioned the legality of the strikes. It initially drew solid criticism from Latin American leaders whose citizens have been targeted.

Nevertheless, Nicolás Maduro. This person was the Venezuelan leader at the time and resisted the strikes, was seized by US forces in a dramatic and highly controversial night-time raid on the capital Caracas at the beginning of this year.

In short, US strikes on alleged drug boats could be crimes against humanity, says is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.