US EditionU.S. Attacked Boat With Aircraft That Looked Like a Civilian Plane
The Pentagon's use of aircraft disguised as civilian planes in drug boat strikes killed 11 people in September and raised war crime concerns over perfidy, experts said.
- On Monday, the Pentagon disclosed it used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane to attack a boat, with munitions hidden inside the fuselage and a modified 737 spotted at St. Croix airport, U.S. Virgin Islands.
- The administration justified the strikes by saying President Donald Trump determined the U.S. is in a `noninternational armed conflict` with 24 criminal gangs and kept planning closely held, excluding many military lawyers.
- Legal specialists warned the laws of armed conflict forbid feigning civilian status, identifying this as `perfidy`; Todd Huntley and Gen. Steven J. Lepper said disguising combatant aircraft could constitute a war crime.
- The military has since shifted to MQ-9 Reaper drones for boat strikes while Congress was briefed on the classified aircraft, and survivors were rescued and returned to Colombia and Ecuador.
- A range of law-of-war experts said U.S. military law and manuals bar targeting civilians posing no imminent threat, and some described the killings as murders citing Guantánamo-related precedents on `perfidy`.
28 Articles
28 Articles
The US military killed eleven people on September 2 last year in an attack on a suspected drug boat using a military aircraft that…
The Pentagon is said to have attacked a boat in the Caribbean, which was allegedly used to smuggle drugs, killing eleven inmates.
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According to the New York Times, even in the context of the Trump administration that there is an armed conflict with suspected drug traffickers attacking the U.S., the laws of war prohibit "perfidiousness"; that is, the illegitimate use of deception to gain advantageTrump publishes a photo of him manipulated with the position of "president-in-Office of Venezuela" The Pentagon used a secret painted plane to make it look like a civilian plane in …
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