Killing a shipwrecked enemy combatant is a «patent violation» of military law, according to a legal expert and the Pentagon’s law of war manual.
The Pentagon’s manual on the law of war doesn’t list every possible illegal order, but on some points, it’s explicit.
«Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked», it says, «would be clearly illegal.»
The 1,200-page manual repeatedly stresses that a combatant who is unable to continue fighting is entitled to fundamental protections. It uses shipwreck survivors as a key example — which is why a September 2 counter-narcotics strike in the Caribbean is drawing intense scrutiny.
During the mission, which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said he watched live, the US military struck a suspected drug-smuggling vessel twice. The first strike appeared to kill nine people on the vessel; then the US military launched a second strike on the stricken boat that killed the two remaining survivors, The reported last week, citing seven people with knowledge of the strike.
Hegseth called the Post report, which said the secretary had ordered a military leader to kill everyone onboard, «fake news.»
«Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command», Hegseth said Friday.
The White House attributed the decision to conduct a second strike on the stricken vessel, executed «to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated», to Adm. Frank Bradley, who now oversees Special Operations Command, instead of Hegseth.
Bradley has been summoned to a closed-door briefing with Congress on Thursday.
His oversight of the strike mission marks a departure from normal military operations, typically overseen by a geographic «combatant commander.
