Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Saturday defended the Sept. 2 strike on survivors of an initial U.S. military attack on an alleged drug boat.
Hegseth made the remarks at the Reagan National Defense Forum during a conversation with Fox News correspondent Lucas Y. Tomlinson. He told Tomlinson that he had left the room after the first strike and before the second-strike order was given but said that he would have made the same decision.
“A couple hours later [after moving on], I was told, hey, there had to be a re-attack, because there were a couple folks who could still be in the fight,” Hegseth told Tomlinson. “Access to radios. There was a link-up point of another potential boat. Drugs were still there. They were actively interacting with them.”
“I said, Roger, sounds good,” Hegseth said.
On Sept. 2, the U.S. military struck a boat twice that the Trump administration alleged was carrying drugs, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the Pentagon’s actions previously told NBC News. Two survivors remained after the first strike, the official said, and the second strike killed them.
“From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike,” he told Tomlinson. “I would have made the same call myself. Those who were involved in 20 years of conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere, know that re-attacks and re-strikes of combatants on the battlefield happen often.”
Hegseth would not say definitively whether the Department of Defense would release video of the Sept. 2 strike.
“We’re reviewing it [the video] right now to make sure sources, methods, I mean it’s an ongoing operation,” he said. “We’ve got operators out there doing this right now. So whatever we were to decide to release we’d have to be very responsible about, so we’re reviewing that right now.”
Asked whether Hegseth at any time said everyone on board should be killed, the Secretary of Defense said he did not.
“It’s just patently ridiculous,” he said. “It’s meant to create a cartoon of me in the decisions that we make and how we make them. Just ridiculous.”
President Donald Trump and the White House have publicly defended Hegseth, with Trump saying that Hegseth did not order the second strike.
The second strike has prompted concerns from some over whether there was a directive to kill survivors, which could constitute a violation of international law.
NBC News reported Saturday that Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley told lawmakers that Hegseth ordered the strike to kill all 11 people on the boat because they were on an internal list of narco-terrorists who U.S. intelligence and military officials determined could be lethally targeted.
An order to kill people on a list of targets is not forbidden under U.S. and international law, unlike a “no quarter order,” which is an illegal military directive to kill all enemy combatants and show no mercy, even if they surrender or are gravely injured.
Bradley was asked in a Congressional briefing this week whether Hegseth gave a no quarter order, according to a U.S. official and a second person with knowledge of the briefing, and he replied that he was not given such an order and would not have followed one if it had been given.
An administration official said in a written statement that, “As with all such actions, a uniformed JAG provided advice and counsel every step of the way” with regard to the Sept. 2 strike.
There have been at least 22 strikes on alleged drug boats, and at least 86 people have been killed. The Trump administration has produced no evidence supporting its allegations about the boats, the people on board or their cargo.
Fiona Glisson, Mosheh Gains, Courtney Kube and Gordon Lubold contributed.
