Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

Menu ≡ ╳

Home
Travel
Culture
Lifestyle
Sport
Contact Us
Politics Politics

Be that!

Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike

admin - Latest News - December 1, 2025

admin

1 view 6 secs 0 Comments

Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike

Source link

TAGS:

PREVIOUS

Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025, 5:57 PM ESTBy Courtney Kube, Gordon Lubold and Raquel Coronell UribeBoth the House and the Senate have started inquiries into a reported second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September that killed the survivors of an initial strike.The Defense Department conducted a second strike on a boat the Trump administration says was carrying drugs from Venezuela after the first strike on the boat failed to kill all of its occupants, one U.S. official and a source familiar with the Pentagon’s actions that day told NBC News. The first of the two strikes conducted on Sept. 2 left at least two survivors, the officials said. The second strike killed the remaining survivors, according to the officials. The boat was carrying 11 people, the Pentagon said at the time. Both strikes that day were the first of several known U.S. strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea that the administration alleges carry drugs to the U.S. Since then, the Pentagon has conducted more than 20 strikes on vessels it says were transporting drugs from Venezuela, killing more than 80 people. The Washington Post was the first to report about the second strike in the Sept. 2 boat attack. The Post reported that the second strike was ordered by the Joint Special Operations commander overseeing the strike who was complying with a previous order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “kill everybody.”NBC News has not confirmed that detail. The second strike is significant as some legal experts say that if it was ordered to kill people who would be otherwise incapacitated, it amounts to a war crime. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said Sunday on CNN that if the reporting on the second strike is true, “it seems to” constitute a war crime. “If what has been reported is accurate, I’ve got serious concerns about anybody in that, you know, chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over,” Kelly said. “We are not Russia. We’re not Iraq. We hold ourselves to a very high standard of professionalism.” Uproar after lawmakers urge troops to defy illegal orders04:23Speaking to reporters Sunday, President Donald Trump said he didn’t know anything about the reported second strike, adding that Hegseth “said he did not say that, and I believe him 100%.”Asked whether he thought it would be legal if a second strike had taken place to kill those wounded in the first, Trump said, “I don’t know that that happened. And Pete said he did not want that — he didn’t even know what people were talking about. “We’ll look into it. But no, I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine, and if there were two people around, but Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence,” he added.“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said.The top Republican and Democrat on the GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee said in a statement Friday that the committee was aware of recent reports.“The Committee has directed inquiries to the [Department of Defense], and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances,” Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in the statement.The Republican-led House Armed Services Committee followed suit Saturday, with Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., saying in a joint statement that the House committee is “committed to providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense’s military operations in the Caribbean.”“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,” Rogers and Smith wrote.Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told the Post in a statement that “this entire narrative is completely false.” He told the newspaper that the “ongoing operations to dismantle narcoterrorism and to protect the Homeland from deadly drugs have been a resounding success.”Hegseth posted Friday evening on X that the strikes were intended to be “lethal, kinetic strikes.”“The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” he wrote.“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” he added.The Trump administration is ratcheting up pressure on Venezuela. Trump is weighing military action against the country following nearly two dozen known U.S. strikes on vessels in the region, which have killed at least 82 people. Trump said Saturday morning that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “closed.”The strikes have raised concerns in Congress about a lack of information from administration officials. Trump last month indicated that his administration will not seek congressional approval for targeting drug traffickers, saying, “I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.”“We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead,” Trump added.Courtney KubeCourtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.Gordon LuboldGordon Lubold is a national security reporter for NBC News.Raquel Coronell UribeRaquel Coronell Uribe is a breaking news reporter. Brennan Leach and Kyle Stewart contributed.

NEXT

Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting

Related Post

November 17, 2025

Hundreds of sheep cross historic German city

November 2, 2025

Here's the biggest news you missed this weekend

November 27, 2025

Nov. 27, 2025, 12:32 AM ESTBy Phil Helsel and Jennifer JettPresident Donald Trump called for a “re-examination” of all Afghan nationals who came to the U.S. during the Biden administration, hours after an Afghan man was named as the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X that the suspect came to the U.S. in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program designed to help Afghans who assisted U.S. forces and were facing a Taliban takeover.“We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden,” Trump said in an address Wednesday night in which he called the shooting an “act of terror.”Shortly after his remarks, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it was halting the processing of immigration from Afghanistan to the U.S.“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the agency, known as USCIS, said on X.The two National Guard members, who are from West Virginia and deployed to Washington, were shot by a gunman around 2:15 p.m. They were in critical condition Wednesday, officials said. The suspect was also shot — by whom was still under investigation — and was hospitalized, according to police.Authorities have not detailed a motive, if one is known, but D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that “this is a targeted shooting” and that the suspect appeared to target the guard members.The suspect has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, of Bellingham, Washington, four senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News.A relative of Lakanwal’s told NBC News on Wednesday that Lakanwal arrived in the U.S. in September 2021 after having served in the Afghan Army for 10 years, alongside U.S. Special Forces.Lakanwal was stationed at a base in Kandahar for part of that time, the relative said. He came to the U.S. after the Taliban returned to power following the August 2021 withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and eventually settled in Washington state.“We were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” the relative said. “I cannot believe it that he might do this.”A source familiar with the case and a separate law enforcement source told NBC News that the suspect was granted asylum this year.Details of what a re-examination of Afghans already in the U.S. would look like, and who arrived during the Biden administration, were not immediately clear Wednesday night.A Trump administration memo on Friday, seen by NBC News on Tuesday, called for a review of all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration — which could affect 200,000 people.The memo calls for a “comprehensive review and a re-interview of all refugees admitted from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025,” including U.S. green card holders. It cites a finding by USCIS that the Biden administration “potentially prioritized expediency, quantity, and admissions over quality interviews and detailed screening and vetting.”The San Diego-based Afghan advocacy group #AfghanEvac, which works to ensure that Afghans who helped the U.S. are not abandoned in the wake of the Taliban takeover, said Wednesday’s shooting should not be used to punish Afghans in the U.S.“Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the United States undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country,” Shawn VanDiver, the group’s president, said in a statement.“This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” he added.The Department of Homeland Security resettled more than 80,000 Afghan refugees to the U.S. before or immediately after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the subsequent takeover by the Taliban. But many others who wanted to leave were left behind.The State Department’s inspector general’s office said in a June 2023 report that as of March of that year, 152,091 Afghan “Special Immigrant Visa” applicants in Afghanistan were waiting on processing. The visa is for Afghans who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S.Afghan immigrants and refugees, including those who aided the American military during 20 years of war, have been all but barred from entering the U.S. during Trump’s second term.On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order suspending all refugee resettlement in the U.S. until admissions align “with the interests of the United States.” Thousands of Afghan refugees, including many who had already been approved for U.S. resettlement, are stranded in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, and in some cases they have been forcibly repatriated.The Trump administration has also terminated protections that allowed Afghans to live and work in the U.S. temporarily because of dangerous conditions at home. The White House says the protections are no longer needed because it is now safe to return to Afghanistan, which is experiencing multiple humanitarian crises and which Trump described as a “hellhole” in Wednesday’s address.Advocates say that Afghans who worked with the U.S. are at risk of persecution, torture or death if they return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and that they undergo extensive vetting before they arrive in the U.S.Trump has said he is committed to helping Afghans who worked with the U.S. military, saying in August that “we know the good ones and we know the ones that maybe aren’t so good.”Phil HelselPhil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.Jennifer JettJennifer Jett is the Asia Digital Editor for NBC News, based in Hong Kong.Courtney Kube, Rich Schapiro, Abigail Williams, Laura Strickler and Tom Winter contributed.

October 23, 2025

The Adam Schiff criminal probe has stalled, sources say

Comments are closed.

Home
Travel
Culture
Lifestyle
Sport
Contact Us
Politics

© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved