On November 6, 2025, the United States military carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel allegedly affiliated with “a Designated Terrorist Organization,” reportedly killing three men described as “narco-terrorists” in international waters in the Caribbean. Videos and witness testimony point to the strike having occurred off the coast of Puerto López in Guajira Peninsula, Colombia.

@SecWar Pete Hegseth published a statement on Twitter/X on November 6th announcing the strike “today” on a vessel reportedly “trafficking narcotics”. In the black and white video included in the post, a boat can be seen moving through the water until it erupts in white light – an explosion that seems to result in flames.

There were no additional details found among local sources about the victims.

Hollman Morris, manager of Colombian public media RTVC, posted on Twitter/X on December 6th about two bodies which had been found in Puerto López and that he spoke with community member David Epiayu who told him that “A few weeks ago, based on clear evidence of a bombing attack, two bodies arrived here, and a third body arrived on the Venezuelan side”. Colombian president @petrogustavo posted a graphic video of two blurred-out bodies on a beach on Twitter/X on December 7th and on December 10th posted a graphic video of someone digging on a beach near the deceased body of someone missing multiple limbs, with a call to action to “the CTI (Technical Investigation Corps) in finding these bodies. They are buried in Puerto López, in the far north of La Guajira” adding that “they appear to be boatmen who were bombed in the Caribbean Sea, apparently citizens of the Dominican Republic” and that the Colombian Attorney General has still not been able to identify them in “a month”. Later statements from Petro seem to indicate that the victims could be Colombian or Venezuelan but there has been no further confirmation.

On December 29th, The New York Times released an investigation relating to a strike which occurred on November 6th after speaking with a witness and local residents. The New York Times spoke with Erika Palacio Fernández, a resident of the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia, who heard a boom ring out and later recorded a video late-afternoon on November 6th showing a large plume of smoke rising from the Gulf of Venezuela. Two days later, on November 8th on the same shore, a “scorched 30-foot-long boat”, two “mangled” bodies, “charred” jerrycans, life jackets, and dozens of packets that seemed to contain marijuana. A Times analyst matched the wreckage of the boat to the video posted by Pete Hegseth based on the shape of the wreckage being consistent with the boat targeted and the damage being consistent with that of an airstrike.

According to the New York Times, the fishermen who found the bodies called police inspector Aristótele Palmar García who had “little tools or training” and was only able to help bury the two bodied and called the regional police who didn’t come found “days, or even weeks”. An official with Colombia’s national government-run network of forensic laboratories Medicina Legal told The Times that the bodies had been disinterred from the beach area and transferred to the city of Barranquilla on December 16th and 17th, but that an autopsy had not yet been performed.

Based on the timeline provided by by witnesses and the information provided by Colombian officials, including location (Puerto Lopez), the bodies documented by @petrogustavo have been included in this incident until further information comes to light.

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 three deaths.