Welcome to the News Hour. It was the first attack in the Trump administration's new campaign in the Caribbean, and it has become the most contentious. A U.S. official tells the PBS News Hour tonight the U.S. military struck an alleged drugboat four times on September 2nd. And today, President Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the attack, but also distanced themselves from the

follow-on strike that targeted people who weren't killed by the first strike. Nick Schifrin joins us

now. So Nick, what have you learned about what happened on September 2nd? Well, exactly what you just

said, Jeff. The U.S. military struck that boat on September 2nd four times, according to a U.S.

official speaking to me today.

The official said that after the first strike, there were people on board who were not killed.

The second strike targeted them. The third and fourth strikes were designed to sink the boat.

Now, why is this important? As of last week, all we knew from President Trump is that there had been

a single strike on a boat that he said carried 11 narco-terrorists. Then last week, all we knew from President Trump is that there had been a single strike on a boat that

he said carried 11 narco terrorists.

Then last week, we learned of a second strike was reporting in the Washington Post and others,

but we didn't know until today that the military needed four strikes to destroy the boat,

which will be crucial when it comes to the legality of these strikes.

And also, as you said today, President Trump, Secretary of Heggseth speaking at the White

House today, really distancing themselves from that second strike to kill the people

not killed by the first strike.

And it was ordered by then Joint Special Operations Command Leader, Admiral Frank, Mitch

Bradley.

I watched that first strike law. As you can imagine, the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do.

So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs.

So I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander

had made the, which he had the complete authority to do, and by the way, Admiral Bradley made

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