US strikes on alleged drug boats could be crimes against humanity, says UN

A report says the attacks, of which there have been at least 68, were not self-defence. The report comes two days after the US military released these pictures of an attack on alleged traffickers in the Caribbean A UN report has concluded that recent US airstrikes on vessels allegedly trafficking drugs breached international law and could constitute crimes against humanity. The report by Special Rapporteur Ben Saul said since September last year there had been at least 68 US strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, outside US territorial waters, which killed more than 220 people. Saul said that even if targets could be identified as members of designated terrorist groups, they had not staged an armed attack on the US which would trigger a right to self-defence under international law.

The report comes two days after the US military said it killed four people in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean. "Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking. The operation killed four narco-terrorists," Southcom, which commands US forces in the region, said in a statement about the latest attack, which was accompanied by a grainy video. But in a briefing note released by the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, Saul said that "such attacks amount to serial extrajudicial killings in violation of the right to