2026年8月3日 美国东部时间晚上7:26 / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：派珀·赫德斯皮思·布莱克本
美国弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员蒂姆·凯恩周一对白宫表示，在对他目前看到的机密信息进行“仔细审查”后，美国军方针对疑似贩毒船只的空袭很可能已非法杀害“未参与毒品走私的人员”。
“他们是谋杀受害者，”这位弗吉尼亚州民主党人在写给唐纳德·特朗普总统的信中写道。
截至目前，在去年9月启动的“南部长矛行动”中，美军已造成至少221人死亡，摧毁至少67艘船只。美国政府曾向国会表示，美国正与贩毒 cartel 开展“武装冲突”，将遇害者贴上“非法战斗人员”的标签，并声称根据司法部一份机密调查结果，美国有权在未经司法审查的情况下发动致命空袭。
但凯恩周一表示，他的审查让他确信“美国正在对远超该机密法律意见范围的人员发动暴力致命袭击”。他补充道：“对现有证据的仔细审查表明，美国已杀害未参与毒品走私的人员。”
凯恩敦促特朗普“调查这些空袭的具体情况”，并停止他所称的“非法、代价高昂且无效”的行动。
这位参议员是参议院军事委员会成员，他在信中提到了与国会共享的、他已看过的有关空袭和目标的机密信息。
白宫发言人安娜·凯利周一晚间在给CNN的一份声明中为空袭行动辩护。
“所有这些果断的空袭目标都是针对将致命毒品运往我国海岸的已指定毒品恐怖分子，总统将继续动用美国的一切力量阻止毒品涌入我国，并将相关责任人绳之以法，”她说。
CNN此前曾报道称，美军官员并不总能知晓他们打击的船只上所有人的身份。官员们告诉五角大楼监察长，他们无法公开披露决定船只是否被海岸警卫队摧毁或截获的具体标准。
凯恩发表此番言论之际，针对船只的空袭正处于暂停状态——最近一次空袭发生在6月21日。目前尚不清楚此次暂停的原因，但此前接受CNN采访的执法官员和专家强调了毒品走私网络的韧性和适应性，并对空袭是否能切实改变该地区的毒品贸易表示怀疑。
相关报道 6月3日，在南方司令部司令弗朗西斯·L·多诺万将军的指示下，联合特遣部队南部长矛队对一个由已指定恐怖组织操控的船只发动了致命动能打击。情报证实该船只正沿已知的贩毒航线航行。美国南方司令部X账号分享的视频截图。美国南方司令部/X 美军已有一个月未炸毁疑似贩毒船只。这场行动奏效了吗？ 5分钟阅读
与此同时，负责此次行动的美国南方司令部坚称，该任务允许美军在贩毒 cartel 的暴力活动和毒品“抵达美国境内”之前就对其进行打击。
凯恩此前曾批评本届政府在加勒比海和东太平洋开展行动的方式。2025年12月，他对加勒比海地区一起据称造成疑似贩毒船只幸存者死亡的所谓“双重打击空袭”发出警告，称如果情况属实，这“已达到战争罪的程度”。
‘They are murder victims’: Senator suggests US strikes have killed people who weren’t involved in drug trafficking
2026-08-03 7:26 PM ET / CNN
By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn
Sen. Tim Kaine speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 14, 2026.
Win McNamee/Getty Images/File
The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House on Monday, following “a careful review” of classified information he has seen so far.
“They are murder victims,” the Virginia Democrat wrote in a letter to President Donald Trump.
So far, the US military has killed at least 221 people and destroyed at least 67 vessels in the “Operation Southern Spear” campaign, which began last September. The administration has told Congress the US is in an “armed conflict” against drug cartels, labeling those killed “unlawful combatants” and claiming the ability to engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding.
But Kaine said Monday that his review has led him to believe “the United States is engaged in violent and fatal attacks against people far beyond” the parameters of the classified legal opinion. He added, “A careful review of the available evidence suggests that the United States has killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking.”
Kaine urged Trump to “examine the circumstances of these strikes” and cease what he called an “illegal, costly and ineffective” operation.
The senator sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and in the letter, he pointed to classified information shared with Congress about the strikes and the targets that he had seen.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly defended the strikes in a statement to CNN on Monday evening.
“All of these decisive strikes have been against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores, and the President will continue to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” she said.
CNN has previously reported that military officials don’t always know the identities of everyone on board the boats they target. Officials told the Pentagon inspector general they could not publicly disclose what criteria determine whether a boat is destroyed or intercepted by the Coast Guard.
Kaine’s comments come during a pause on the boat strikes — the most recent occurred on June 21. It is not clear why there has been a break, but law enforcement officials and experts who previously spoke with CNN stressed the resiliency and adaptability of drug smuggling networks and expressed skepticism about whether the strikes will meaningfully change the region’s drug trade.
Related article On June 3, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking. Screengrab from video shared by US Southern Command’s X account. US Southern Command/X The US military hasn’t blown up an alleged drug boat in a month. Has the campaign worked? 5 min read
Meanwhile, US Southern Command, the headquarters overseeing the campaign, has insisted that the mission allows the military to fight the cartels before “their violence and poison” reach the country.
Kaine has previously criticized the administration over how it has conducted operations in the Caribbean and east Pacific. In December 2025, he raised alarm about a so-called double-tap strike that killed survivors on an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean, suggesting that it “rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true.”