Washington: US military forces killed four people in a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, amid escalating controversy over a campaign responsible for more than 87 deaths.

The US Southern Command stated the vessel operated in international waters by a Designated Terrorist Organisation and carried illicit narcotics along a known trafficking route. "Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed," the command posted on X, sharing video of a multi-engine boat exploding into flames.

Earlier in the day, lawmakers viewed extended footage of the controversial early September incident during a classified Capitol Hill briefing, where US forces struck wreckage already hit, killing two survivors. Representative Jim Himes, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called it "the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors," describing it as "one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service."

Republican Representative Don Bacon noted the survivors posed no "imminent threat," violating rules of war. Senator Tom Cotton defended the actions as "entirely lawful and needful," claiming the men tried to right the drug-laden boat to continue operations.

The White House and Pentagon attributed the September decision to Admiral Frank Bradley, distancing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, though critics hold him accountable. The Trump administration frames operations as a war against "narco-terrorists," deploying major assets like the world's largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro accused Washington of using counter-narcotics as a pretext for regime change in Caracas.

With inputs from AFP