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U.S. says 1 person survived after military strikes on alleged drug boats kill 5 in eastern Pacific

/ CBS/AFP

The U.S. military said Sunday it had killed five more people on boats alleged to be trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific, with one person surviving the strikes, bringing the controversial campaign's total death toll to at least 168.

The strikes were carried out against two boats on April 11, U.S. Southern Command announced , accompanied by aerial video of the attacks.

As with previous strikes, the U.S. military said the boats were "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes."

"Two male narco-terrorists were killed, and one narco-terrorist survived the first strike. Three male narco-terrorists were killed during the second strike," it said, without providing any evidence of the drug trafficking claim.

After the strikes, Southern Command said it notified the U.S. Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue mission for the survivor. The Coast Guard confirmed it was coordinating the search and said updates would be provided when available.

The U.S. military began striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean last September. 

In at least six instances, people have survived the operations, spurring efforts to find and rescue them in most cases. Authorities have called off several of those searches, though in one October operation, two survivors were picked up by a Navy helicopter and repatriated to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

The military's handling of survivors has drawn intense scrutiny. During the first boat strike on Sept. 2, two people survived an initial strike but were killed in a follow-on attack, prompting accusations the second strike may have constituted a war crime. Democratic lawmakers who watched a video of the Sept. 2 operation were highly critical of the strike. The Defense Department and several congressional Republicans have insisted the survivors may have still been in the fight, warranting the follow-on strike.

The Trump administration has said the strikes are necessary to combat narcotics trafficking. It has labeled the alleged drug smugglers as "unlawful combatants," and told Congress the U.S. is embroiled in a "non-international armed conflict" with cartels.

Earlier this year, the families of two Trinidadian men who were killed in a U.S. missile strike on a boat in the Caribbean sued the Trump administration, arguing the "premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification."

Joe Walsh contributed to this report.

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