The US military was aware that there were survivors in the water following the first strike on September 2 and carried out another to both sink the vessel and kill the remaining crew, the sources said. Pentagon officials told lawmakers in briefings afterward that the second strike was done to sink the boat so it would not pose a threat to navigation, the sources said.

The US military has hit boats multiple times in several instances to sink them, the sources said, but the September 2 strike is the only known instance where the military deliberately killed survivors.

It is not clear why the survivors were not picked up, as they were following another strike in the Caribbean in October. In that instance, the Trump administration rescued two survivors and repatriated them to their home countries.

In a post announcing the September 2 strike on Truth Social, kra36 at President Donald Trump said that the US military had conducted "a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility."