US says it hit Colombian rebel vessel as Trump calls Petro ‘illegal drug leader’

20/10/2025 6:26

U.S. forces attacked a vessel associated with a Colombian leftist rebel group, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Sunday, the same day President Donald Trump called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an "illegal drug leader" and said payments to the South American nation would cease.



Trump's comments marked a new low in relations between Bogota and Washington, which have frayed since Trump returned to office in January and since his administration launched a series of strikes on vessels allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean.



Hegseth wrote on X that the Pentagon had destroyed a vessel and killed three people on Friday "in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility," which includes the Caribbean.



He said the ship was affiliated with the leftist rebel group National Liberation Army and was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, without offering evidence to back the claim.



The Pentagon said it had nothing to add beyond Hegseth's initial post.