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With the Colom­bian Pres­i­dent Gus­tavio Petro rais­ing con­cerns about the Sep­tem­ber 2 mil­i­tary strike by the US on a ves­sel leav­ing Venezuela, which re­port­ed­ly left 11 peo­ple dead, new de­tails are rais­ing doubts about the le­gal­i­ty and ne­ces­si­ty of the op­er­a­tion.

A re­port in the New York Times dat­ed Sep­tem­ber 10 re­port­ed that US of­fi­cials briefed on the strike said the ves­sel ap­peared to have al­tered course and even turned back be­fore the at­tack be­gan.

De­spite this ma­noeu­vre, the US mil­i­tary en­gaged re­peat­ed­ly, sink­ing the ves­sel and killing 11 peo­ple be­lieved to be on board.