A video clip showed that the survivors of the American attack clung to the wrecked boat for an hour before the second bombing

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The survivors were shirtless, unarmed, and without any communications equipment. The photos indicate that they were not aware of what had happened, nor did they know that US military personnel were evaluating whether to strike them again.

For about an hour, the two men struggled to free part of the ship’s hull that had been severed by the initial explosion.

The video follows them for about an hour as they try to return the boat to normal. They were unable to do so, according to what one source told Reuters.

The video heightened lawmakers’ concerns about the possibility that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials involved may have committed a war crime.

On the same day the video was shown to lawmakers, the Pentagon announced a new deadly attack on a ship in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing four men. This is the twenty-second attack since the start of the military campaign, which left at least 87 people dead.

The Southern Command posted footage of the latest attack on social media, describing it as a “deadly kinetic attack against a ship in international waters operated by a designated terrorist organization.”

This revelation comes at a time when the White House and the Department of Defense are facing increasing pressure to explain the legal basis for the operation, which was conducted without consulting Congress.

Much of the scrutiny revolves around the September 2 attack, after The Washington Post revealed that Hegseth gave the verbal order to “kill them all.” Admiral Frank Bradley, who was in charge of the operation, denied to lawmakers that such an order had been issued.

Although Donald Trump posted footage of the initial attack on his Truth Social platform, no footage of the second attack – which killed the survivors – has been released. The president promised to release the full video, but the Pentagon has not done so yet.

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Democrat Jim Himes, who watched the video, called the episode “one of the most disturbing” of his career in public service.

– You have two people in a position of clear danger, without any means of transportation, with a destroyed ship – he said. – Any American who sees the pictures will see the American army attacking shipwrecked sailors.

According to sources heard by Reuters, the attack began with the detonation of an aerial fragmentation munition, which led to the death of nine crew members. The two survivors were seen floating in the water and clinging to the wreckage.

Bradley argued internally that the ship’s hull could contain enough cocaine to remain afloat and be recovered, the sources said. The video shows three new rounds of ammunition being fired at the nearly destroyed ship.

– You could see faces, bodies… Then, boom, boom, boom – added the source.

Manual on the Law of War

Republican Senator Tom Cotton said the survivors were trying to “turn over a boatload of drugs to continue the fight.” This interpretation has been refuted by experts in international law, such as Ryan Goodman, a professor at New York University and a former Pentagon lawyer.

“I would like to know how Senator Cotton… was able to realize that these outcast people were trying to ‘stay in the fight’ rather than desperately clinging to life in an attempt to stay alive,” Goodman wrote on social media.