Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot and combat veteran, said the military operation that killed 11 alleged drug traffickers, including two initial survivors, in the Caribbean in early September was "essentially murder."

In a Sunday interview on CNN`s "State of the Union," Duckworth pushed back on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth`s comparison of the operation in the Caribbean to the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, where both Duckworth and Hegseth deployed.

"Well, there was actually a vote by Congress to put us at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no such a vote, there was no such debate here in this situation," Duckworth said.

She praised military personnel as "the utmost professionals" but said, "The problem is, they have not been authorized to be at war."

Duckworth said she sees critical differences in the way the operations are being carried out. For one thing, she said, the individuals targeted by the U.S. military in the alleged drug boat "were not even aimed at the United States."

"So, everything that they have done has been illegal. It`s illegal under international law. It`s illegal under the Geneva Convention. And it certainly is even illegal under domestic law," she continued. "It was essentially murder with that double-tap strike."

"It is a war crime. It`s illegal. However you put it, it`s all illegal," she added.

Duckworth, who lost her legs and partial use of her right arm in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter she was co-piloting in Iraq, noted that the laws of warfare state clearly that it`s illegal to target an enemy after they no longer pose a threat.

"Look, I have been shot down behind enemy lines," she said. "Under the laws of war, if a pilot bails out, he gets shot down, he bails out, he`s in a rubber dinghy in the middle of the ocean, under all the international laws of warfare, you are supposed to help render aid to that individual."

She noted that even if the individual has a radio and is calling for their side to come pick them up, or even if "you know they`re going to conduct future operations against you," the Geneva Conventions forbid additional strikes to take out the enemy.

"And so everything that they did here was illegal. In fact, the two survivors were clinging to half of a boat in the middle of the ocean and had no access to a radio, per the admiral`s briefing. And so, yes ... the whole operation is illegal to begin with," she said.