US President Donald Trump’s administration has drafted a legal opinion asserting that US military personnel involved in military strikes off the coast of Latin America are immune from prosecution, according to news reports.

The Washington Post and the Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday that the Department of Justice’s office of legal counsel had provided the opinion regarding criminal liability for the deadly attacks on boats in the Caribbean.

The White House claims that the attacks target alleged drug traffickers, saying that it is waging “a non-international armed conflict” against “narcoterrorists” and “unlawful combatants” with ties to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

However, US authorities have provided no evidence that any of the 76 people killed in at least 19 attacks had any links to drug trafficking.

Right-wing former president George W Bush’s administration coinded the term “unlawful combatant” to avoid its actions being covered by the Geneva Convention.

Some of Washington’s closest allies, such as Britain and France, have expressed their unease at the attacks.

Britain claims to have stopped sharing intelligence on drug-trafficking operations with the US, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, while attending a ministerial-level meeting of the G7 in Canada, that the strikes breached international law.

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hit back, telling reporters “that the European Union gets to determine what international law is.

“They certainly don’t get to determine how the United States defends its national security.”

Meanwhile, Mr Maduro accused the US on Wednesday of unleashing a discreditation campaign against his country.

He told Venezolana de Television: “The American empire has unleashed a campaign to discredit Venezuela and the Bolivarian revolution in a bid to justify any actions against the country.

“Being unable to say that Maduro possesses weapons of mass destruction, biological, chemical weapons, or that Venezuela is developing nuclear weapons, the US disseminates false information no-one, first of all the US people, believes in.

Venezuela is a peaceful country and it has never threatened anyone.”

Washington has accused Caracas of not doing enough to combat drug smuggling and, as well as attacking small boats, has deployed eight US warships, one submarine and more than 16,000 troops to the Caribbean.