WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are scrutinizing the U.S. military attacks near Venezuela and on Thursday focused on a secondary strike during an attack on Sept. 2.
During a closed briefing in Congress, U.S. Navy Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not issue a kill order before the secondary strike, according to Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Bradley’s testimony during the classified briefing followed a report by The Washington Post on the Sept. 2 attack after an official video showed a follow-up strike killed two survivors.
Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press that the video of the secondary strike is concerning.
“The order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” Smith said, adding that the video shows “two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water.”
Bradley told lawmakers that he ordered the second strike that killed the two survivors, according to Cotton, who said four missiles were used.
CNN reported that sources said the logic for Bradley’s order was “the survivors could hypothetically have floated to safety, been rescued, and carried on with trafficking the drugs.”
Kingsley Wilson, a Pentagon press secretary, said during a news conference on Tuesday that 82 “narco-terrorists” had been killed as part of Operation Southern Spear.
On Monday, Hegseth issued a statement describing Bradley as an American hero.
“I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made,” Hegseth wrote.
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