"US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has denied seeing any survivors from a military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea in September, before the second deadly strike, which has prompted calls for an investigation into possible war crimes. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Hegseth said he watched the initial strike on September 2 in real-time but did not witness the controversial follow-up strike."
"As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we've got a lot of things to do, so I didn't stick around I moved on to my next meeting, Hegseth said at the meeting presided over by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration is calling the Department of Defense the Department of War, though the president insists he is a peacemaker who has brokered multiple ceasefire deals."
"Hegseth's comments came amid growing demands for accountability over the double-tap strike, which Democratic lawmakers and legal scholars have condemned as a likely war crime. Secretary Talk Show Host may have been experiencing the fog of war,' but that doesn't change the fact that this was an extrajudicial killing amounting to murder or a war crime, US Senator Chris Van Hollen said on X, referring to Hegseth's previous career as a host on Fox News."
Pete Hegseth denied seeing any survivors from a military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean in September, saying he watched the initial strike in real time but did not witness the follow-up. He said he left for another meeting and described the scene as obscured by fire and smoke, calling it the 'fog of war.' Hegseth defended Admiral Frank Bradley's decision to carry out a second strike to eliminate the threat and said the administration empowered commanders to act at night. Calls for accountability have grown, with Democratic lawmakers and legal scholars condemning the double-tap strike as a likely war crime.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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