The United States has "only just begun" targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Tuesday, despite a growing outcry over strikes that critics say amount to extrajudicial killings.

Hegseth and President Donald Trump's administration have come under fire particularly over an incident in which US forces launched a follow-up strike on the wreckage of a vessel that had already been hit, reportedly killing two survivors.

Both the White House and Pentagon have sought to distance Hegseth from that decision -- which some US lawmakers have said could be a war crime -- instead pinning the blame on the admiral who directly oversaw the operation.

"We've only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, because they'v

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