US decides to transfer survivors of attack in the Caribbean abroad

The U.S. Army airlifted the survivors to a U.S. Navy warship in the Caribbean, where they were detained until at least Friday night. It was not clear whether they had already been removed from the ship on Saturday morning.

U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, hoped the survivors would eventually be sent to their home countries. The conditions surrounding this transfer were unclear, including whether they would be detained.

The decision to send survivors home frees the U.S. Army from dealing with thorny legal issues related to the military detention of suspected drug traffickers whose alleged crimes do not fall squarely within the laws of war, according to legal experts.

In a speech on Friday, Trump told reporters that the attack took place against “a drug transport submarine built specifically to transport large quantities of drugs”, without saying how many were killed or survived the attack.

The Pentagon has not provided details about the attack at press time and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.