US politicians have called on Congress to review US military strikes against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
The Washington Post last week reported Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a maritime attack on September 2.
The report said he had ordered a second strike on two crew members who had survived an initial attack on their boat and were clinging to wreckage.
Mr Hegseth had ordered troops to kill all on board, the newspaper and CNN reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the operation.
"The order was to kill everybody," one of the sources told the Post.
Later on Sunday, President Donald Trump defended the Pentagon chief and said the reports were false.
"I'm going to find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men," the President said aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
When asked if he would have wanted a second attempt to kill the survivors, Mr Trump said: "We'll look into it, but no, I wouldn't have wanted that – not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal."
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine told CBS News that, if true, the targeted killing of a strike survivor "rises to the level of a war crime".
When asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no longer able to fight, Republican Representative Mike Turner said Congress does not have information that that had happened. He said leaders of the armed services committees in the House and Senate have opened investigations.
“Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Mr Turner told CBS. He said there are concerns in Congress about the attacks on boats that the Trump administration says are carrying drugs, but the allegations regarding the September 2 attack “is completely outside anything that has been discussed with Congress and there is an ongoing investigation".
After the Post's report, Mr Hegseth said “fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland".
Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate armed services committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, said the committee “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances".
That was followed by the chairman of the House armed services committee, Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama, and ranking Democratic member, Washington's Adam Smith, issuing a joint statement saying the panel was committed to “providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defence’s military operations in the Caribbean".
The boat strikes come as the US increases pressure on Venezuela.
On Saturday, Mr Trump said the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should be considered as “closed in its entirety", an assertion that raised more questions about pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Mr Maduro's government has accused Mr Trump of making a “colonial threat” and seeking to undermine the South American country’s sovereignty.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry called Mr Trump's remarks a “new extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the people of Venezuela".
