Three suspected Colombian ELN narcoterrorists killed in US military strike at sea

Three suspected narcoterrorists were killed in a U.S. strike on a drug trafficking vessel affiliated with the Colombian National Liberation Army, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Sunday.

The “deadly kinetic strike” took place Friday in international waters at the direction of President Donald Trump, Hegseth wrote in an article on X.

“Our intelligence knew that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics trafficking, that it was traveling a route known for narcotics trafficking, and that it was transporting significant quantities of narcotics,” Hegseth wrote. “There were three male narcoterrorists on board the ship during the attack, which took place in international waters.”

“All three terrorists were killed and no US forces were injured in this strike,” he added.

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Hegseth also shared an unclassified video showing the moment of the strike.

The ship was linked to the National Liberation Army of Colombia, known as the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), Hegseth said. (War Department)

The Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) of Colombia is a designated terrorist organization. Hegseth compared the Colombian rebel group to the al-Qaeda terrorist group founded by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Hegseth said the vessel was trafficking narcotics. (War Department)

“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, which uses violence, murder and terrorism to impose its will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth wrote. “The US military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are: they will be hunted down and killed, just like Al-Qaeda.”

Hegseth attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, following a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers at Alliance Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 15, 2025. (Reuters/Yves Herman)

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Friday’s strike brings the death toll from the Trump administration’s military campaign against suspected drug trafficking vessels in the region to at least 31. The operations began last month and are part of Trump’s broader efforts to forcibly dismantle transnational cartels.

On Thursday, the US military carried out a strike against what Trump later called a “very large drug-carrying submarine” in the Caribbean, killing two suspected narcoterrorists and capturing two others alive.

Fox News previously confirmed that two survivors were rescued by the US Navy after the strike and were being held aboard a US warship.

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On Tuesday, another strike killed six suspected smugglers aboard a ship off the coast of Venezuela.

Louis Casiano and Jasmine Baehr of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.