On December 30, 2025, the United States military carried out kinetic strikes on three vessels in international waters allegedly affiliated with “Designated Terrorist Organizations,” reportedly killing three people described as “narco-terrorists” while eight other people described as “narco-terrorists” abandoned their vessels but were not rescued during U.S. Coast Guard searches. U.S. Southern Command did not initially mention where the strikes occurred, though the U.S. Coast Guard later specified that the searches had occurred about 400 NM southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border in the Pacific Ocean.

The strikes were announced by SOUTHCOM on Twitter/X on December 31st. The statement detailed that the strikes were on a convoy of vessels which intelligence confirmed allegedly “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes.” The statement then detailed that after the three men were killed in the first vessel, “The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels.” SOUTHCOM said that they immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search and rescue.

In a video included in the post from @Southcom, three boats are shown traveling from a distance and then the camera paned to a close-up aerial view of one of the boats exploding. The video then briefly zoomed out to show the one boat in flames while the other boats continued moving, and then again showed the enflamed boat, until finally showing two other shots of boats – likely the boats referred to as “abandoned” – being sank by multiple explosions.

The @USCGPACAREA posted on Twitter/X initially on December 31st that they were conducting search and rescue operations and then announced on January 2nd that “The @USCG suspended its search Friday for reported people in the water about 400 NM southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border. Coordinated search efforts covered more than 1,090 NM over 65 hours with no sightings of survivors or debris.”

There has been no further information found about the supposed survivors. In response to questions from The Intercept, Col. Emanuel Ortiz, Southern Command’s chief of public affairs, clarified that the survivors of the boat strikes which had occurred up until January 8th 2026, including this incident, were counted as “narco-terrorists deaths” following the strikes. Therefore, a maximum range of 11 deaths has been recorded to reflect this.

Methodological note about classification of those killed in this incident

In documenting this incident, Airwars is following the guidance outlined by independent International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law experts, whereby those on the vessels are understood to be civilians, given that the legal framework in which the strikes are being conducted remains in question.

Airwars has therefore included a civilian casualty count of 3-11 deaths.