Washington — Individuals on board two alleged drug smuggling ships jumped into the water after an initial strike on another ship on Tuesday, the US military said.

US Southern Command announced on Wednesday that three “narcotics smuggling vessels traveling as a convoy” had been attacked in “international waters” a day earlier. Three people died when the first boat was hit, according to the Southern Command, bringing the estimated death toll in the months-long military campaign against alleged drug smugglers to at least 110.

“The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two ships, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before further engagements sank their ships,” the Southern Command said, adding that the US Coast Guard had been notified of search and rescue efforts.

In a separate statement, the Coast Guard said it was notified of “seafarers in distress in the Pacific Ocean” on Tuesday.

“The US Coast Guard is coordinating search and rescue operations with vessels in the area, and a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft is en route to provide further search coverage with the ability to drop life rafts and supplies,” the statement said.

As many as eight people left the remaining two vessels, three US officials told CBS News. One of the officials said the attacks were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

AND 46 second video there did not appear to be any survivors in the water from the impact.

There was the Trump administration’s treatment of survivors under intensive supervisionand some critics accuse him of committing potential war crimes after a subsequent attack on September 2 killed two survivors. Two men who survived an Oct. 16 attack in the Caribbean Sea have been detained by the US Navy and repatriated, raising questions about the threat the Trump administration says the alleged drug traffickers pose to US strikes on Oct. 27 in the Pacific, and one survivor, who has since been presumed dead.

Members of Congress — mostly Democrats — they tried to curb ship strikeswhich come as the Trump administration escalates pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The administration has accused Maduro of drug trafficking and working with gangs designated by the US as terrorist organizations, which Maduro denies.

Lawmakers raised alarm that the strikes, which were not authorized by Congress, could lead to war with Venezuela and questioned their legality.

President Trump, who has repeatedly threatened ground attacks on Venezuela, he said The US last week “de-engineered” a “major facility” linked to alleged drug-trafficking operations, but his administration has provided few details about it.

“There was a big explosion in the area of ​​the docks where they load the ships with drugs,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday in Florida.

Many Republicans defended the strikes, including after the administration acknowledged that two survivors of the Sept. 2 attack on the ship were killed in a subsequent strike.

Both critics and defenders of the subsequent strike on September 2 called for the video to be made public, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth he said The Pentagon has no plans to do that.