The recent attacks add to the total figure of known boat strikes, 35, and the total number of people killed is at least 115 since the beginning of September, according to official statistics.

US defense forces fired on five suspected drug smuggling boats in two days, killing a total of eight individuals, and others leaped off the boats and, possibly, survived, the US Southern Command said in a social media posting on 1st January.

The US Southern Command, which governs South America, was silent on the locations of the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The same has been done in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

One of the videos of the attack posted by the Southern Command on social media depicts three boats in a tight formation, which is not usual. The military indicated that they were in a convoy along established narco-trafficking routes and that they had exchanged narcotics among the three boats before the strikes.

The military failed to offer evidence to support the claim.

The military reported that three individuals died when the first boat was hit, with the occupants in the other two boats leaping overboard and dissociating themselves with the boats before being attacked.

Southern Command reportedly informed the US Coast Guard to put search and rescue operations into effect.

The statement issued by Southern Command did not mention whether the individuals who jumped off the boats were rescued.

Based on this, it is interesting to note that the US military faced considerable criticism when it called in the Coast Guard, as its troops had killed the survivors of an attack in early September, with a subsequent attack on their crippled boat.

According to some Democrat legislators and legal professionals, the military did commit a crime, whereas the Trump administration and certain Republican legislators believe the subsequent strike was lawful.

On Wednesday, the US troops fired at two additional vessels, killing five individuals who were purportedly transporting drugs across well-traveled drug trafficking routes, US Southern Command said in a different announcement.

It failed to support the evidence of the so-called trafficking, and it did not show the body of water where the attacks took place. With the statement, videos were shared on social media of a boat in the water and explosions.

The recent attacks add to the total known boat strikes, 35, and the death toll is at least 115 since early September, as announced by the Trump administration.

The US President Donald Trump has defended the attacks as a necessary escalation to halt the flow of drugs into the country and claimed that the US is fighting a military war against drug cartels.

In addition to the strikes, the Trump administration has amassed military forces in the region as part of a growing pressure campaign against the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been accused of narco-terrorism in the United States.

In the meantime, the CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area, which the CIA thought was used by drug cartels in Venezuela. Two individuals who knew the details of the operation revealed the information to us in anonymity because of the secrecy surrounding the intelligence issue.

It marked the first direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US started strikes in September, a considerable increase in pressure campaigns by the administration of the government of Maduro.