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WASHINGTON — <\/span>The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel<\/a> accused of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat \u201cwas transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.\u201d It said the strike killed three people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration\u2019s strikes on alleged drug boats to 133 people in at least 38 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared last week that \u201csome top cartel drug-traffickers\u201d in the region \u201chave decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.\u201d However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media. <\/p>\n President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in \u201carmed conflict\u201d with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks<\/a> as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing \u201cnarcoterrorists.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n