WASHINGTON — Adm. Frank M. Bradley saw the two survivors of a September strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat as legitimate military targets based on the rules for the operation, which may have identified them as narco-terrorists, a defense official told NBC News.

The military then launched a second strike on the same boat, generating controversy over whether the second strike was legal or could potentially constitute a war crime.

After the first strike, the two survivors were in electronic communication with another ship suspected of being involved in narcotics trafficking, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The details of that communication are unclear, but commanders at the Pentagon could cite the survivors' contact with a “mothership” as evidence that they were contin

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