WASHINGTON

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Tuesday that he was not in the room when a Navy admiral ordered a follow-up attack that killed survivors of a previous US strike on an alleged drug boat.

Hegseth sought to clarify remarks he made in September in which he said he saw the attack, saying now that he only saw the initial strike and left the room when the second attack took place.

"As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting," he said at the White House during a Cabinet meeting.

"A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the (decision), which he had the complete authority to do, and by the way, Adm. (Frank) Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat, sunk the boat and eliminated the threat, and it was the right call. We have his back, and the American people are safer," he added.

The Sept. 2 strike has increased scrutiny over the legality of the Trump administration's attacks on what it says are "narcoterrorist" vessels operating in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean as US President Donald Trump says the campaign will soon grow to include land-based targets.

The Pentagon has not released footage of the strikes, but media reports have suggested that the follow-on attack killed at least two people who survived an initial strike on the boat the Trump administration says was smuggling drugs from Venezuela.

Hegseth denied seeing any survivors, claiming the second attack was shrouded in "the fog of war."

The Pentagon's Law of War manual says shooting shipwrecked individuals is prohibited and that individuals "who are wounded, sick, or shipwrecked, shall be respected and protected in all circumstances. Such persons are among the categories of persons placed hors de combat; making them the object of attack is strictly prohibited."

"Moreover, it is also prohibited to conduct hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors, or to threaten the adversary with the denial of quarter," the text says.