The Coast Guard said Friday that it is coordinating the search with multiple vessels, including those from partner nations and commercial fishing boats in the water about 400 nautical miles southwest of Mexico's border with Guatemala, covering an area spanning more than 1,000 nautical miles.
"Weather reported in the area was nine-foot seas, and 40-knot winds," it said in a statement shared with The Hill.
The Coast Guard dispatched its HC-130J Super Hercules, a surveillance aircraft with long-range maritime patrol capability, from Sacramento, Calif., to search the area and sent out an urgent "marine information broadcast" to mariners in the region.
As of Friday, the Coast Guard said it had spent more than 65 hours in its search efforts for the survivors, who jumped into the water after the U.S. military struck the first of the three alleged drug-smuggling vessels Tuesday.
It is unclear how many people may have survived the Tuesday attack, but the U.S. has said three were killed.
The U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) said the U.S. military conducted strikes against an alleged drug-smuggling convoy operated by a designated terrorist organization. It is unclear which terrorist group the U.S. military was referring to.
After the strikes, the people on the second and third boats jumped into the water and distanced themselves before additional strikes sank their respective vessels, Southcom said Wednesday.
"Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes," Southcom wrote on social media.
The Tuesday mission marks at least the fourth time that alleged drug-traffickers have survived initial attacks by the U.S. military, which so far has conducted a minimum of 35 strikes and killed at least 115 "narco-terrorists." The attacks have taken place in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, part of what the administration argues is an effort to curb the flow of narcotics in the region and protect the country.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
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