US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refuses to confirm if video of a controversial ‘double-tap’ strike on survivors will be released, as lawmakers call the footage troubling.
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday refused to commit to releasing video of a military operation that targeted survivors of a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat.
The White House confirmed this week that a US admiral ordered the deadly “double-tap” strike in the Caribbean, which has sparked accusations of a possible war crime.
A total of 11 people were killed in the two strikes in early September.
The operation was part of a months-long military campaign that has so far left more than 80 dead.
While video of the initial attack has been released, pressure is mounting on the administration to release footage of the follow-up strike on the survivors.
“We are reviewing it right now,” Hegseth said during a Q&A session at a defense forum in California.
Asked multiple times whether the video would be released, Hegseth resisted giving a definitive answer.
“We’re reviewing the process, and we’ll see,” he said.
“Whatever we were to decide to release, we’d have to be very responsible about reviewing that right now.”
Hegseth vehemently denied issuing a kill order on survivors, as reported by The Washington Post.
“You don’t walk in and say ‘Kill them all.’ It’s just patently ridiculous,” he said.
He claimed the reporting was “meant to create a cartoon of me and the decisions that we make.”
However, he acknowledged that he does “fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.”
During his speech, Hegseth fiercely defended US President Donald Trump.
He claimed the current commander in chief is “the true and rightful heir of Ronald Reagan” and his doctrine of peace through strength.
He insisted the strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats and their “narco-terrorists” will continue.
“We are killing them. We will keep killing them so long as they are poisoning our people with narcotics so lethal they’re tantamount to chemical weapons.”
US authorities have not provided specific evidence that the boats were ferrying drugs.
Lawmakers have been scrutinizing the second strike closely.
The admiral who oversaw the operation, Frank Bradley, briefed members of Congress in a classified session.
Afterward, Connecticut Democrat Jim Himes called the double-tap video “one of the most troubling things” he’d been shown as a lawmaker.
“Any American who sees the video that I saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors — bad guys, bad guys, but attacking shipwrecked sailors,” he added.
CNN reported that two sources said Admiral Bradley told lawmakers the boat was bound for Suriname.
The vessel could have planned to rendezvous with another ship there.
