President Donald Trump said Tuesday the United States carried out another military strike on a small boat off the coast of Venezuela.
The president said six people were killed in what he described as an operation against narcotics traffickers.
A “lethal kinetic strike” on a boat off the coast of Venezuela early Tuesday killed six suspected drug traffickers, according to Trump, who announced the action through an afternoon social media post.
He said the strike was ordered, under his authority, by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks,” Trump wrote in his post on Truth Social.
“Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela,” he continued.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route,” Trump added.
“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” he continued. “No U.S. Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!”
Trump also shared video footage purporting to show the operation.
It was the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean as the Trump administration has asserted it is treating alleged drug traffickers as “unlawful combatants” who may be met with military force.
The military has carried out at least four previous strikes on boats that the White House said were carrying drugs, including three it said originated from Venezuela.
The administration said 21 people were killed in those earlier strikes.
The U.S. War Department is establishing a new counter-narcotics joint task force in the Southern Command’s area of responsibility, where the United States has been targeting boats it alleges to be carrying drugs, Hegseth said Friday.
U.S. Southern Command is the U.S. military’s combatant command that encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean.
“The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold,” Hegseth said on X last week.
The expanding campaign has stirred bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill.
Some Republican lawmakers have pressed the White House for details on the legal justification and scope of the operations, while Democrats contend the strikes violate U.S. and international law and risk escalating tensions in the region.
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