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The United States<\/span> left the survivors of a recent boat strike to die at sea, formally abandoning search efforts Friday.<\/p>\n Their presumed deaths are the result of attacks by U.S. forces on three boats in the Pacific Ocean on December 30. After striking one vessel and killing three civilians, crew members of the other boats, according to U.S. Southern Command<\/a>, \u201cabandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n The unspecified number of survivors who leapt into the Pacific faced nine-foot seas and 40-knot winds, Kenneth Wiese, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard Southwest District, told The Intercept.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Coast Guard called off the search for those people on Friday citing a \u201cdeclining probability of survival.\u201d A U.S. government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said the men are now presumed dead.<\/p>\n The United States has been attacking boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific\u00a0since September<\/a>, killing at least 117 civilians in 35 attacks \u2014 including at least five people on December 30. The total death toll is now unknown, with U.S. Southern Command\u2019s latest tally of attacks and fatalities omitting known strikes and casualties.<\/p>\n Experts in the laws of war and members of Congress,\u00a0from both parties<\/a>, have said the strikes are illegal\u00a0extrajudicial killings<\/a>. At least five civilians are known to have survived previous attacks: two on September 2, two on October 16, and one on October 27. The Intercept was the\u00a0first outlet to report<\/a>\u00a0that the U.S. military\u00a0killed two survivors<\/a>\u00a0of the initial boat attack on September 2 in a follow-up strike<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n William Baumgartner, a retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral and former chief counsel of that service branch, said that while there were legal and moral distinctions between attacking the survivors of the September 2 strike and U.S. actions following the December 30 attack, the latter was still tantamount to a death sentence.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the people jump in the water and you blow up the only thing that could possibly save their lives, that\u2019s essentially killing them,\u201d Baumgartner told The Intercept. \u201cThe expected result is essentially the same as putting a gun to their head.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n U.S. Southern Command did not answer questions about the number of people killed in the December 30 strike. Steven McLoud, a SOUTHCOM spokesperson, stated that \u201csince September, the Dept. of War has conducted 33 strikes on narco-terrorist vessels, resulting in 34 vessels destroyed and 115 narco-terrorist deaths.\u201d That attack count conflicts with the total of 35 strikes<\/a> tallied by The Intercept and separately compiled by the boat strike trackers of the New York Times<\/a>, Military Times<\/a>, and Airwars<\/a>, a civilian harm watchdog group.<\/p>\n The death toll proffered by McLoud \u2014 115 people killed \u2014 is also incorrect. U.S. Southern Command\u2019s announcement<\/a> of the December 30 strike noted: \u201cThree narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels\u2026\u201d Considering the multiple people who jumped into the sea and are now presumed dead, the number of civilians killed must be at least 117.<\/p>\n McLoud did not reply to multiple requests for clarification.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n