U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States was sending two suspected drug traffickers back to their native Ecuador and Colombia, after a military strike on their "drug-smuggling submarine" in the Caribbean that killed two others.

"It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route," Trump said on his Truth Social platform, adding that the vessel was loaded with fentanyl and other drugs.

Trump did not provide any evidence but posted a roughly 30-second video that appeared to show a semi-submersible vessel in the water before being hit by at least one projectile.

"Two of the terrorists were killed. The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution," Trump said.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed that the Colombian suspect had been repatriated.

"We are glad he is alive, and he will be prosecuted according to the law," Petro said on social media platform X.

Ecuador's communications office and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The strike, which Trump had announced on Friday, was the latest in an unprecedented U.S. military campaign that he says is aimed at choking the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States.

At least six vessels, most of them speedboats, have been targeted by U.S. strikes in the Caribbean since September, with Venezuela alleged to be the origin of some of them.

The Trump administration has said the previous strikes killed 27 people, raising alarms among some legal experts and Democratic lawmakers, who question whether they adhere to the laws of war.

The strikes also come against the backdrop of a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops, as the Trump administration escalates a standoff with the Venezuelan government.

On Wednesday, Trump disclosed that he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, adding to speculation in Caracas that the United States is attempting to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro has denied any connection to drug smuggling and denounced the U.S. boat strikes as a pretext for regime change, portraying them as violations of sovereignty and international law.

In a letter this week to the United Nations' 15-member Security Council, seen by Reuters, Venezuela's UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada asked for a UN determination that the U.S. strikes off its coast are illegal and to issue a statement backing Venezuela's sovereignty.

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(With input from AFP and Reuters)