Trump says the US carried out a new anti-drug strike, killing at least 3.
Rights groups call these strikes “extrajudicial killings,” Maduro says they seek to impose a regime change in Venezuela while US lawmakers question their legality
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the Pentagon had ordered the strike and killed “3 male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel.”
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans.”
Trump did not specify where the vessel departed from or where exactly the strike took place.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is the US military’s combatant command that encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean.
The latest strike comes amid a large US military buildup in the southern Caribbean. Five US F-35 aircraft were seen landing in Puerto Rico on Saturday after the Trump administration ordered 10 of the stealth fighters to join the buildup.
There are also at least seven US warships in the region, along with one nuclear-powered submarine.