The United States Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Tuesday that the Pentagon will not make public the full, unedited video footage of a US military strike that allegedly killed two individuals who had survived an earlier attack on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean. His remarks came amid growing pressure from lawmakers who are demanding greater transparency around the military operation.
Hegseth clarified that while the complete footage would remain classified, members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees would be given access to review the video in a secure setting later this week. However, he firmly ruled out any possibility of the material being released to the general public. Speaking to reporters after a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill, he said there was no justification for releasing “a top-secret, full, unedited video” outside official oversight channels.
According to a report by the Associated Press, Hegseth also noted that Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley, the senior officer who authorized the follow-up strike on September 2, is expected to return to Capitol Hill to participate in additional classified briefings. During these sessions, lawmakers will again be shown video evidence related to the operation and provided further explanations regarding the decision-making process behind the strike.
The defence secretary’s comments came as the US military acknowledged another series of deadly operations as part of its ongoing maritime campaign. On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed that it had targeted three boats accused of drug smuggling in the eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in the deaths of eight people. Military officials said three individuals were killed on the first vessel, two on the second, and three on the third.
The Pentagon claimed that the boats were connected to organizations designated as terrorist groups, though it did not present independent or detailed evidence to substantiate the allegation. Instead, authorities released a brief video clip showing one of the vessels exploding at sea, which critics argue does little to address questions about the legality and proportionality of the strikes.
These latest attacks add to a broader US military campaign that, according to American officials, has resulted in at least 95 deaths across 25 known strikes on vessels operating in international waters in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. The scale and frequency of these operations have intensified scrutiny from lawmakers and human rights advocates alike.
In response to criticism, senior national security officials have been making the rounds on Capitol Hill to defend the campaign, pushing back against claims that the strikes may exceed the limits of lawful military action. They have argued that the operations are justified under existing authorities and are necessary to counter transnational criminal threats.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed that defence, framing the campaign as a counter-narcotics effort aimed at dismantling powerful criminal networks. He said these organizations were directly responsible for harming Americans through drug trafficking and related violence, describing their activities as a serious national security threat.
At the same time, tensions in the region have been further heightened by President Donald Trump’s decision to order what he described as a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. Trump accused President Nicolás Maduro’s government of exploiting oil revenues to fund crime, terrorism and human trafficking, and said the blockade was intended to choke off those financial flows.
As part of this pressure campaign, the United States has deployed warships, conducted fighter jet patrols near Venezuelan airspace and seized at least one oil tanker. The Maduro government has strongly condemned these actions, accusing Washington of attempting to forcibly remove him from power and characterizing the tanker seizure as an act of piracy.
