U.S. Secretary of Defense (Secretary of War) Pete Hegese has parodied the U.S. military's "sinking of drug-carrying vessels" in the Caribbean region with a children's book cover.

On the night of the 30th (local time) last month, Hegese posted a drawing on his X (formerly Twitter) account with the caption, "For your Christmas wishlist."

The book cover depicts the protagonist character from the Canadian children's book series "Franklin the Turtle" bombing and sinking ships in the sea from a helicopter.

The title of the cover is "Franklin Targets Narcoterrorists." The ships, depicted as carrying drugs, are manned by armed smugglers.

He then tagged the U.S. Southern Command, which carried out the ship-sinking operation.

Hegese posted the message at a time when international law violation controversies surrounding the U.S. military's sinking of ships were escalating, and the U.S. Congress announced it would launch an investigation into the facts.

There are claims that the U.S. military's attack on the vessel, without clear confirmation that it was a drug-carrying vessel, violates international law. In particular, he is being criticized for "war crimes" as reports indicate he ordered a further attack on the two survivors of the sunk vessel to kill them.

Earlier, when asked by reporters about the controversy surrounding the second attack while on his private plane from Florida to Washington D.C., President Donald Trump stated, "I will look into that," while also adding that Hegese's claim was that he did not order the killing of the survivors, and that he trusted him.

When asked if he believed the "second attack was legal," he replied, "I would not have wanted that (the second attack)," and added, "The first attack was very deadly."

However, he defended the military operation in the Caribbean itself, saying, "Every ship (that the U.S. military struck) is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans (due to drug smuggling). So I think they are doing a tremendous job."

Pete Hegese, U.S. Secretary of Defense, parodied post about sinking drug-carrying vessels. Hegese's X capture.

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