WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Friday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the U.S. military has carried out another lethal airstrike on a drug boat in the Caribbean.
Hegseth posted on social media, “Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and was struck in international waters. No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and three male narco-terrorists — who were aboard the vessel — were killed.”
The strike comes after Republicans narrowly blocked an attempt by Senate Democrats on Thursday, aimed at preventing the Trump administration from taking further action in the Caribbean.
Democrats call the administration’s strikes off the coast of Venezuela unauthorized and illegal, and they warn that any move toward U.S. action on the ground against that country could pull America into another war.
“There has been no congressional authorization for military action of this kind, and the President, we believe, does not have the unilateral authority to start a war like this, against organizations and cartels, without a congressional vote,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
This marks the second failed attempt to limit the administration’s military action, which has now expanded to the Pacific. To date, U.S. strikes have killed at least 66 alleged narco-traffickers.
President Trump is also paying close attention to Africa, designating Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” due to the ongoing, deadly persecution of tens of thousands of Christians there by radical Islamic groups.
“The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and in numerous other countries; it’s not only Nigeria, it’s all over. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian Population around the World,” President Trump said in an address posted to social media.
Over the weekend he ordered the Pentagon to prepare for the possibility of U.S. military intervention there, and he’s threatening to end U.S. aid if the Nigerian government doesn’t act to protect Christians from attacks. Nigerian officials claim their security problem has been misrepresented.
“There are killings in Nigeria, quite frankly, we are not denying that. And we are not denying Christians are being killed. But we are saying that data and realities all suggested that the killings are not targeted to religion. It is indiscriminate killings by criminal elements,” Daniel Bwala, an advisor to Nigeria’s president, told the BBC in a recent interview.
But as CBN News has reported extensively for the last few years, the facts indicate Christians are being explicitly targeted and murdered by Muslim herders and Islamic terror groups in Nigeria.
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Meanwhile, in Eastern Africa, the Trump administration hopes to end more than two years of conflict on Sunday. Thursday, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a group accused of killing thousands of civilians, agreed to a U.S.-brokered humanitarian ceasefire. The Sudanese military, however, has not yet signaled its agreement.
Despite the ongoing conflict, the Department of Homeland Security announced that refugees from South Sudan in the U.S. will no longer be protected from deportation. A statement on the DHS website cites the fact that the country has avoided returning to full-scale civil war. Critics warn that the country is not safe for refugees to return to.
“The front lines here are constantly moving, and we are still seeing massive violations of international humanitarian law, we are still seeing killings of children, killing of health workers, killing of humanitarians, killing of innocent civilians,” said Sheldon Yett with UNICEF.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the White House is actively engaged in bringing about a peaceful resolution. She adds, the administration is also committed to addressing both the immediate humanitarian crisis and longer-term political challenges.
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