Lawsuit alleges US strike killed civilians near Venezuelan waters

"These are lawless killings in cold blood; killings for sport and killings for theatre, which is why we need a court of law to proclaim what is true and constrain what is lawless," Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement.

The administration has rejected such characterisations, maintaining that the operations were lawful and aimed at disrupting drug-smuggling routes long used by violent criminal groups.

His group and the American Civil Liberties Union filed the novel lawsuit under the Death on the High Seas Act, a maritime law that allows family members to sue for wrongful deaths occurring on the high seas, and the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law that allows foreign citizens to sue in US courts for violations of international law.

The lawsuit was filed by Lenore Burnley, Joseph's mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo's sister, and seeks only damages from the US Government for the two deaths, not an injunction that would prevent further strikes.

But the case could provide an avenue for a court to assess whether the October 14 strike was legal.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.