The US military said Sunday that it blew up two boats accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a total of five people and leaving one survivor, as the Trump administration pursues its campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America while preparing a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The attacks on Saturday bring the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the US military to at least 168 since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.

As with most of the military’s statements on the dozens of strikes in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, US Southern Command said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs. Videos posted on X showed small boats moving across the water before they each were engulfed in a bright explosion.

US Southern Command stated on X that it notified the US Coast Guard to activate the search-and-rescue system for the survivor. The Coast Guard confirmed it was coordinating the search and said updates would be provided when available.

President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and fatal overdoses claiming American lives.

But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Critics have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the US over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

The boat strikes have continued in Latin America even as the US military has focused on operations in the Middle East, where the US was engaged in a war with Iran for several weeks.

Trump on Sunday said the US Navy would begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after US-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement.

Trump wants to weaken Iran’s key leverage in the war after demanding that it reopen the crucial waterway through which 20% of global oil normally passes.

US Central Command said the blockade would involve Iranian ports.

Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks on Monday that killed more than 25 people in Iran.

Tehran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors as US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz loomed.

Explosions rang out into the night in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded. Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one airstrike hit the Sharif University of Technology grounds.

Two people were found dead in the rubble of a residential building in Haifa, according to Israeli authorities. The search was ongoing for two more even as new Iranian missile attacks hit the northern Israel city early Monday.

Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates both activated their air defense systems to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones, as Tehran kept up the pressure on its Gulf neighbors. Iran’s regular attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent global energy prices soaring.

Under pressure at home as consumers are growing increasingly concerned, Trump gave Tehran a deadline that expires Monday night, Washington time, saying if no deal was reached to reopen the strait the US would hit Iran’s power plants and other infrastructure targets and set the country “back to the stone ages.”

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he threatened in a social media post, adding that if Iran did not open the strait “you’ll be living in Hell.”

Trump’s deadline to open Hormuz strait looms but no signs of Tehran backing off

Tehran has shown no signs of backing down off of its stranglehold on shipping through the strait, which was fully open before Israel and the US attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.

Following Trump’s expletive-laced posts on Easter Sunday, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf called the threats of targeting Iran’s infrastructure “reckless.”

“You won’t gain anything through war crimes,” Qalibaf wrote on X. “The only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game.”

Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $109 in early Monday spot trading, some 50% higher than it was when the war started.

Iran has let some vessels through the strait since the war began, but none belonging to the US, Israel or countries perceived as helping them. Some have paid Iran for passage and the overall flow of traffic is down more than 90% over the same period last year.

Beyond Trump’s military threats, diplomatic efforts are still underway to see if a solution can be reached to open the waterway.

Oman’s Foreign Ministry said that deputy foreign ministers and experts from Iran and Oman met to discuss proposals to ensure “smooth transit” through the strait.

Egypt said that Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had spoken with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and with Turkish and Pakistani counterparts. Russia said that Araghchi also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Airstrikes kill more than 25 across Iran

One of Monday’s morning airstrikes targeted Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, where Iranian media reported damage to the buildings as well as a natural gas distribution site next to the campus.

It wasn’t immediately clear what had been targeted on the grounds of the university, which is empty of students as the war has forced all schools into the country into online classes. However, multiple countries over the years have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is controlled by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

A strike near Eslamshar, southwest of Tehran, killed at least 13 people, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. Five others were killed when a residential area in the city of Qom was hit, and six more were killed in strikes on other cities, the state-run IRAN daily newspaper reported.

Three more people were killed when an airstrike hit a home in Tehran, Iranian state television reported.

War’s death toll in the thousands

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but its government has not updated the toll for days.

In Lebanon, which Israel has invaded by ground, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there while targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 US service members have been killed.

The exiled crowned prince of Iran and his Los Angeles-based princess daughter celebrated the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in powerful posts Saturday.

Princess Noor Pahlavi – who’s been speaking out against the regime for months – posted a series of messages to Instagram Story as news of the strikes and the Ayatollah’s death emerged.

“We are watching a violent theocracy that has massacred our people for decades finally get hit. And many Iranians inside Iran feel a painful kind of relief,” she said.

“Not because war is ‘good.’ Not because anyone is ‘good.’ But because when you’ve lived with a devil on your neck for 45-plus years any crack in its machinery feels like air.”

“Not because war is ‘good.’ Not because anyone is ‘good.’ But because when you’ve lived with a devil on your neck for 45-plus years any crack in its machinery feels like air.”

Pahlavi also shared two videos of Iranians cheering in the streets and commented: “The Islamic republic is being bombarded. They are laughing because they have suffered under this regime for decades.”

Meanwhile, her father Reza Pahlavi – who has lived in the US since the 1979 revolution – reacted to reports that the Ayatollah was dead following the US and Israel airstrikes against Iran.

“The bloodthirsty Zahhak [an evil king in Iranian mythology] of our time, the killer of tens of thousands of Iran’s bravest sons and daughters, has been erased from the pages of history. With his death, the Islamic Republic has effectively come to an end and will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history,” he posted to X.

Pahlavi added that any attempt by the regime to appoint a successor was ”doomed to failure” because they will lack legitimacy and be ”complicit in the crimes of this regime.”

The exiled crown prince also warned the military, security, and police forces inside the country not to prop up the regime and to instead join the people “to help ensure Iran’s stable transition to a free and prosperous future.”

”The death of the criminal Khamenei, while it cannot bring back the spilled blood, can serve as a balm for the scorched hearts of the grieving families, the fathers and mothers, spouses and children in mourning, and the families of the selfless martyrs of Iran’s Lion and Sun National Revolution.”

He said the death marked Iran’s “great national celebration” and encouraged his fellow Iranians to “stay vigilant and prepared.”

“The time for a massive and decisive presence in the streets is very near. Together, united and steadfast, we will secure the final victory, and we will celebrate Iran’s freedom across our Ahura-created homeland. Long live Iran.”

Noor Pahlavi also wrote “Thank you” and her comments included a heart and crying face emoji.

A retaliatory Iranian attack struck near a US Navy base in Bahrain Saturday morning, sources confirmed to The Post.

A massive explosion could be seen close to the base on the Persian Gulf Island nation associated with the US Fifth Fleet in video obtained by The Post.

The footage is taken from a vehicle passing by the area. A cloud of dark smoke blasts into the sky after the explosion, which then sends shrapnel flying in all directions.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” the passengers can be heard shouting.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.