A former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has told the BBC that US air strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats would be treated under international law as crimes against humanity.
The comments by Luis Moreno Ocampo come as the Trump administration faces mounting questions over the legality of the attacks in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific - which have killed at least 66 people in the last two months.
The administration says it is in a formal armed conflict with South American traffickers who are bringing drugs into the US.
But Mr. Moreno Ocampo said the military campaign fell into the category of a planned, systematic attack against civilians during peacetime.
This, he said, meant that the campaign fell into the category of crimes against humanity.
These are criminals, not soldiers. Criminals are civilians, said Mr. Moreno Ocampo of the US allegations against the boat crews. They are criminals, and we should do better at investigating them, prosecuting them and controlling them, but not killing people, he told the BBC.
The White House responded that President Donald Trump acted in line with the laws of armed conflict to protect the US from cartels trying to bring poison to our shores... destroying American lives. They highlighted that the ICC had no jurisdiction over the United States and argued that it was a biased, unserious entity.
Mr. Moreno Ocampo criticized the expansion of the president's leeway to use lethal force, labeling the strikes as a very dangerous change in policy. Traditionally, suspects would be apprehended rather than killed. He also indicated that such actions set a troubling precedent globally.
The US has maintained that it is engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels. In a significant move, they designated eight Latin American organized crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). The military actions, however, have drawn widespread criticism and raised legal and ethical concerns about the involvement of the US in extrajudicial actions against non-combatants.
Opposition figures have pushed back against the legality of the strikes, asserting that the justification is insufficient without clear evidence linking the targeted individuals to drug trafficking activities. This ongoing controversy highlights the challenges of balancing national security interests with adherence to international law.
