US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has attempted to justify the decision to fire a second missile during an attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea by claiming that two suspected drug smugglers were trying to right the vessel after it had capsized in the initial strike.

Mr Trump also backtracked on whether he was open to releasing the video footage of the second strike. 

Last week, the president told reporters that he saw “no problem” with releasing the footage, but he said on Monday he would leave the decision to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Mr Hegseth was accused last week of issuing the order, which many experts say could have breached international law.

The Trump administration is facing calls from Democratic legislators to release footage of the September 2 operation in the Caribbean, which killed nine people in the initial strike and then two more who had survived it.

“They were trying to return the boat back to where it could float and we didn’t want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs,” Mr Trump said on Monday.

When asked by a reporter about his comments last week suggesting that he was open to releasing footage of the second strike, the president repudiated that position and branded the reporter “obnoxious” and “terrible.”

“Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is OK with me,” Mr Trump said.

But last Wednesday, in an exchange with reporters about the strike footage, he said: “Whatever they have we’d certainly release.”

The September 2 operation was the first in what has become a series of US strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that the administration says are targeting drug smugglers working on behalf of cartels, including some that he alleges, without evidence, are controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. 

At least 87 people have been killed in 22 known strikes.