President Donald Trump has notified Congress that his administration has determined that members of drug cartels are “unlawful combatants” with which the United States is engaged in “non-international armed conflict”, according to US media.

The memo, reported by The Associated Press news agency and The New York Times on Thursday, comes after the US military last month struck three alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, killing 17 people. Rights observers and war powers scholars have said the attacks appear illegal under US and international law and likened them to extrajudicial killings.

The memo is the clearest picture yet of how the administration is seeking to justify such attacks and what its approach could portend.

“Although friendly foreign nations have made significant ef

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