WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump has declared that his country is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels, which his administration has labeled “terrorist organizations,” and that suspected smugglers for these groups are “unlawful combatants,” according to a report citing a confidential notice to Congress.

The confidential notice, obtained by The New York Times, provides new details on the administration’s legal rationale for the three strikes last month that killed 17 people aboard the targeted boats.

The Trump administration argues that the operations were lawful under the laws of armed conflict and framed as self-defense, contending the cartels’ drug trafficking constitutes hostile acts against the US.

The notice to Congress, deemed controlled but unclassified, cites a statute requiring reports to lawmakers about hostilities involving US armed forces, according to the report.

It states that Trump has “determined” cartels involved in drug smuggling are “nonstate armed groups” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States,” citing “noninternational armed conflict.”

The notice does not name the cartels involved or clarify the criteria used to label individuals as unlawful combatants.

Senator Jack Reed, top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, was cited as saying that Trump appears to be waging “secret wars” without congressional approval or credible legal justification.