# UN says US boat strikes may be crimes against humanity

> A UN human rights expert concludes US military attacks on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean since September 2025 killed over 230 people and may constitute crimes against humanity.
- Title: UN says US boat strikes may be crimes against humanity
- Summary: A UN human rights expert concludes US military attacks on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean since September 2025 killed over 230 people and may constitute…
- Keywords: united nations, ben saul, us military, caribbean, pacific, drug trafficking, extrajudicial killings, crimes against humanity, donald trump, us southern command, news, world
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/21/us-boat-strikes-crime-against-humanity
- Published: 2026-09-21T15:54:43+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: united nations, ben saul, us military, caribbean, pacific, drug trafficking, extrajudicial killings, crimes against humanity, donald trump, us southern command, news, world
## US strikes kill over 230 in two regions
Since September 2025, the United States has carried out dozens of military attacks on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean on stated grounds of stopping drug trafficking by sea to the US. The strikes have killed more than 230 people.
## UN expert calls strikes crimes against humanity
Ben Saul, a special rapporteur for the UN human rights council, concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe the attacks constituted crimes against humanity. He wrote that the reported sixty-eight attacks that killed two hundred twenty-three people violated international law.

> There are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks that killed 223 people constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law.
## Saul rejects US self-defence claim
Saul's report rejects Donald Trump's claim that the strikes amounted to self-defence against designated terrorist organizations. The special rapporteur wrote that the crews were not militarily armed and possessed neither the intent nor capacity to launch military attacks against the US.

> Even assuming that the vessels and crew attacked were members of the criminal groups listed as terrorist, such organizations have not mounted any 'armed attack' on the United States so as to trigger a right of self-defence.
## US Southern Command defends latest strike
US Southern Command, which coordinated the attacks, posted on Saturday that it had executed a lethal strike on a go-fast vessel in the Caribbean. The operation killed four people the command described as narco-terrorists, but provided no victim details or intelligence evidence.

> Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel's active involvement in narco-trafficking. The operation killed four narco-terrorists.
## Strikes have not reduced drug flow
Although Trump claimed the bombings stopped ninety-seven percent of illegal drugs entering the US by sea, available data shows the attacks have had no impact on the volume of cocaine entering the US. Journalists and human rights groups identified some victims as innocent or low-ranked trafficking participants.
## Key takeaway

A UN special rapporteur concluded US attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs have killed more than two hundred thirty people since September twenty twenty-five and may constitute crimes against humanity.