Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said a group of US lawmakers will be shown the full, unedited video of a controversial September boat strike in the Caribbean.

Hegseth told reporters after a classified briefing for Senators on Tuesday that appropriate congressional committees would be allowed to see it, but not the general public.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended the briefing on the Trump administration’s air strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats and other military actions in the Caribbean.

After the briefing, most Republicans said they wanted the White House to keep up its efforts, while Democrats raised questions on the legality of the strikes that have killed at least 90 people.

Just hours before the Capitol Hill briefing, the US military announced it carried out strikes on three boats in the Pacific Ocean, killing eight people.

Hegseth said that on Wednesday members of the House and Senate’s armed services committees would see the unedited video of the 2 September strikes. He added it would be shared with “appropriate” committees, but did not say whether all lawmakers would be allowed to review it.

“In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy – Department of Defence policy – of course we’re not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth said.

A defence spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last week would require the Pentagon to give the armed services committees full unedited videos of strikes against designated terrorist organisations in what is known as the Southern Command, the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Senate is currently considering the bill.

Since beginning the series of attacks in September, the defence department has announced on social media when it has carried out a what it says is a strike against terrorists attempting to bring deadly and illegal drugs – mostly fentanyl – to the US by boat. The posts often include grainy video clips, but no evidence of the alleged drug trafficking, and few details on who or what was on board each vessel.

Rubio on Tuesday told reporters that he and Hegseth had offered lawmakers updates on the “counter-drug mission” that is “killing Americans, poisoning Americans”.

“This has been a highly successful mission that’s ongoing and continued,” America’s top diplomat said, adding that they would also brief House lawmakers later in the day.

After reports surfaced earlier this month that two survivors of the initial 2 September attack were still clinging to the burning boat when they were killed by a second strike, lawmakers from both parties demanded answers from the administration.

The defence official in charge of the mission went to Capitol Hill to provide more details on what had happened and to clarify that Hegseth had not given an order, as was then being reported, to “kill them all”.

Many Democrats, though, said they were troubled by what they had learned and called for further investigation, while some said the full video should be released publicly.

Frustration about not showing the 2 September video to all lawmakers has been expressed by members of both parties.

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, said it’s important for members to see it so they can discern whether the operation was lawful. He also suggested a transcript of the video could be helpful to better understand the “decision-making process”.

The top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said on Tuesday that “if they can’t be transparent on this, how can we trust their transparency on other issues”.

California Senator Adam Schiff, also a Democrat said he will make a request on the Senate floor to unanimously release video of the boat strike to the full Congress.

The December news reports about a possible second strike raised fresh legal questions about the legality of attacking boats in international waters.

US Navy Admiral Frank Bradley, who told Congress earlier this month that he ordered the second strike, will also brief the armed services committees on Wednesday.

While President Donald Trump at first said he had no problem releasing footage of the 2 September attack, he now says that the decision rests with Hegseth.

The repeated attacks have also come at the dismay of the Venezuelans.

President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of stoking tensions in the region, with the aim of toppling the government.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab told the BBC Trump’s allegations stem from “great envy” for the country’s natural resources.

But for some Republicans on Capitol Hill, toppling the government could be a net positive result of the strikes.

Florida Senator Rick Scott, a Republican, said the White House is committed to doing “whatever it takes” to stop the drugs coming into the US.

“[Maduro] should be in prison, or get the hell out of Venezuela,” Scott said.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, another Republican, went a step further.

“Every indication by President Trump is that the purpose of this operation is to shut down the Maduro regime and replace it with something less threatening to the United States,“ he said.

“We’ve blown up 25 boat for what purpose? Why are we killing all these people? To protect America. And if Maduro is what they say he is. And I believe them, he needs to go.”