A former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has told the BBC that US air strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats would be treated under international law as crimes against humanity.
The comments by Luis Moreno Ocampo come as the Trump administration faces mounting questions over the legality of the attacks in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific - which have killed at least 66 people in the last two months.
The administration says it is in a formal armed conflict with South American traffickers who are bringing drugs into the US.
But Mr. Moreno Ocampo said the military campaign fell into the category of a planned, systematic attack against civilians during peacetime. This, he said, meant that the campaign fell into the category of crimes against humanity.
These are criminals, not soldiers. Criminals are civilians, said Mr. Moreno Ocampo of the US allegations against the boat crews. They are criminals, and we should do better at investigating them, prosecuting them and controlling them, but not killing people, he told the BBC.
The White House said in response that President Donald Trump acted in line with the laws of armed conflict to protect the US from cartels trying to bring poison to our shores... destroying American lives. It highlighted that the ICC had no jurisdiction over the United States and argued that it was a biased, unserious entity.
Mr. Moreno Ocampo, who served as the first chief prosecutor at the ICC from 2003 to 2012, described the strikes as a very dangerous expansion of the president's remit to use lethal force. He emphasized that a crime against humanity involves a systematic attack against a civilian population, stating that even if the crew might be deemed criminals, they are still civilians.
The legal implications surrounding these strikes and their justification continue to stir controversy, as opposition Democrats challenge the legality of the strikes, questioning their execution under the US Constitution's war powers.
