The U.S. military used an aircraft disguised as a civilian airplane to strike a suspected drug boat operating in the Caribbean, The New York Times reported Monday.
Unnamed officials confirmed to the newspaper that the aircraft did not have weapons visible from the outside. It was painted in the usual military gray, they said, but did not have military markings.
The strike allegedly took place in September as the Trump administration ramped up its campaign against drug traffickers operating off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. Eleven people were killed in the attack.
A former deputy judge advocate general for the U.S. Air Force told the Times that disguising combat aircraft as civilian could qualify as perfidy, a violation of international law.
While the U.S. Defense Department did not comment directly on the report, it said its aircraft are vetted for compliance with domestic laws and applicable international standards, including the laws of armed conflict.
The Times noted that, since early September, the U.S. military has switched to using clearly marked aircraft, including the MQ-9 Reaper drone, to carry out airstrikes in the Caribbean.
The U.S. maintains a sizable military presence in the southern Caribbean, ostensibly to block drug traffickers. Earlier this month, some of those ships and aircraft were used to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who prosecutors accuse of collaborating with drug cartels.
The two are being held at a federal detention facility in New York, awaiting trial.
