Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday he was unaware a September U.S. military strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean left survivors, who were killed in a subsequent strike.

The statement came several days after a Washington Post story said Hegseth had reportedly ordered Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley and the SEAL Team 6 he oversaw to kill everybody aboard the vessel and leave no survivors. The report said that an initial strike against the vessel on Sept. 2 left two survivors clinging to their vessel’s wreckage, but that a second strike ordered afterward killed them.

Former JAGs and senior lawmakers have said such actions would constitute war crimes, if the report is true.

“I did not personally see survivors

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