Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth has said that US forces killed four people in a strike on a suspected drug cartel boat in the eastern Pacific on Wednesday.
The strike marked the 12th such operation since Trump deployed a naval fleet in the Caribbean waters in September. The alleged vessel, according to Hegseth, was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling. The boat was taken out after it attempted to embark on a transit along a well-known narco-trafficking route.
He shared a 22-second video on X, showing the boat in international waters erupting in a large explosion. Earlier this week, the US forces in a separate strike targeted another drug cartel boat, in which 14 people lost their lives in the same region.
The US has so far carried out more than a dozen strikes, which officials describe as aimed at dismantling the drug cartel nexus in the Caribbean and Pacific regions. As many as 62 people, including fishermen, have lost their lives in what Colombia and Venezuela describe as illegal strikes by Washington.
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Trump, along with the US officials, has defended the strikes, saying they are in an undeclared war with the Venezuelan drug cartel. Reacting to the incident, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the interception of three planes allegedly used for drug trafficking. There is a massive US military build-up within striking distance of Venezuela that the US has termed an anti-drug operation.
This includes seven US Navy warships as well as F-35 stealth warplanes and the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group.
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