US military strike kills three 'narco-terrorists' in Pacific Ocean, takes overall death toll to 202
In short:
The United States military has killed at least 202 people in air strikes on boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
US Southern Command says the vessels are part of "narco-trafficking" operations and the people on board are "narco-terrorists".
What's next?
The Trump administration has declared the US is in armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels.
The US military says it has killed three men in an air strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific.
It is the latest strike in a months-long series of attacks from the US on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
The death toll from these strikes has now risen to at least 202 people.
US Southern Command said the most recent strike on Saturday local time came after intelligence had confirmed the vessel was transiting along "narco-trafficking" routes in the eastern Pacific and was engaged in drug trafficking operations.
"Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed," it said.
The US military provided no evidence to support the claim the people were trafficking drugs.
For every strike carried out, the US military shares a black-and-white video of the incident on social media.
The latest video shows a small boat moving in the ocean before a projectile heads towards the vessel and an explosion follows.
On May 30, the video shared was in colour for the first time and it showed another small boat floating in the ocean before it was hit and engulfed in a fireball.
A small vessel in the eastern Pacific engulfed in flames after it was hit by a US military air strike. (US Southern Command)
Armed conflict with cartels
The Trump administration has declared the US is at armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the flow of drugs into American communities.
The strikes have been contentious, drawing backlash late last year after revelations two people survived the first boat attack last September only to be targeted again in a follow-up strike and killed.
Legal experts have said that would have violated laws governing armed conflict.
The Pentagon's watchdog said this month it plans to look into whether the US military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out its strikes.
However, the evaluation is focused specifically on what is known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not the legality of the strikes, the inspector general's office said.
To date, only three people are known to have survived strikes and then been rescued.
Two were rescued from a semi-submersible ship accused of carrying drugs in October and later returned to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.
In March, the US Coast Guard said it recovered a survivor of a strike that killed two others and transferred the survivor to Costa Rican authorities.
ABC/Wires