Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. struck four vessels in the Eastern Pacific, resulting in 14 casualties.

According to Hegseth’s announcement yesterday, the DoD carried out “three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics” in the Eastern Pacific. He added that U.S. intelligence shows they were “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.”

Eight men were aboard the first vessel, all killed in the strike, four were in the second vessel, and three people were aboard the third vessel. There was one survivor.

“All strikes were in international waters with no U.S. forces harmed. Regarding the survivor, USSOUTHCOM immediately initiated Search and Rescue (SAR) standard protocols; Mexican SAR authorities accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue,” Hegseth continued.

“The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” Hegseth threatened.

The announcement made on social media Tuesday, marks a continued escalation in the pace of the strikes, which began in early September spaced weeks apart. This was the first time multiple strikes were announced in a single day.

Hegseth said Mexican search and rescue authorities “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of the sole survivor but didn’t say if that person would stay in their custody or be handed over to the U.S.

In a strike earlier in October which had two survivors, the U.S. military rescued the pair and later repatriated them to Colombia and Ecuador.

Hegseth posted footage of the strikes to social media in which two boats can be seen moving at speed through the water. One is visibly laden with a large amount of parcels or bundles. Both then suddenly explode and are seen aflame.

The third strike appears to have been conducted on a pair of boats that were stationary in the water alongside each other. They appear to be largely empty with at least two people seen moving before an explosion engulfs both boats.