US President Donald Trump said Friday the US military has carried out its third fatal strike against an alleged drug smuggling vessel this month. Trump in a social media posting said the strike killed three and was carried out against a vessel 'affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narco-trafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.'

He did not provide more precise details about the location of the strike. The Pentagon deferred questions about the strike to the White House, which did not respond to a request for clarity about the origins of the vessel. 'Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans,' Trump said in the post.