The US military has attacked three more alleged drug boats, killing a total of eight people, the US Southern Command said Monday night.

The strikes were carried out in the Eastern Pacific “at the direction” of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Southern Command said in a post on X that included a 47-second video of boats being destroyed in fiery explosions.

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Eight people were killed in the operation, Southern Command said. The military did not detail where, exactly, the attacks occurred.

These latest strikes come as the Trump administration faces mounting scrutiny over its pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and unilateral strikes on boats off the shores of South America. The US has assembled a formidable military force in the region as President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the campaign — so far limited to the water — could expand to land strikes soon.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress have demanded Hegseth brief lawmakers on the strikes, and are also seeking unedited video of an attack on a vessel in September where apparent survivors of a first airstrike were killed in a second attack.

Lawmakers have threatened to cut Hegseth’s own travel budget if he doesn’t comply.  

Hegseth has continued the operations, unfazed, and the president has stuck by his Defense secretary.

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Legal experts have joined Capitol Hill opponents in questioning whether the strikes violate international law. Questions have also been raised on whether the boats were actually headed for the US, and whether they were carrying fentanyl — the narcotic responsible for a US opioid crisis that has killed tens of thousands.

Maduro said that if his nation came under foreign attack, the working class should mount a “general insurrectionary strike” and push for “an even more radical revolution.”