ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump has announced that the military carried out a “kinetic” strike on a small boat allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela for the Tren de Aragua gang.
In a Tuesday post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said 11 people were killed in the attack and described them as “terrorists”.
“No US forces were harmed in this strike,” Trump wrote. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”
Footage and details
Trump released black-and-white aerial footage of the bombing, which took place early Tuesday morning. Few details have been made public, and the exact location has not been confirmed.
Though, Trump identified the people on board the boat as “narcoterrorists” who were “at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted that the strike occurred in the “southern Caribbean”, but did not elaborate.
Speaking later at the White House, Trump broke the news in an off-script remark during a press conference about US Space Command. “We just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat,” he told reporters.
Military build-up in the region
The incident comes as the US increases its military presence in the Caribbean. Reuters reported that seven US warships and a nuclear-powered submarine are either already in the region or on their way, carrying more than 4,500 sailors and Marines.
The deployment has raised fears of an escalation with Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro has surged military resources to the coast.
On Monday, Maduro vowed to “declare a republic in arms” if the country were attacked, accusing Washington of pursuing regime change through military threats.
A return to ‘maximum pressure’
Trump has revived the hardline approach that characterised his first term, raising the US reward for Maduro’s arrest to $50m and invoking wartime powers to justify military deployments.
The Trump administration claims Venezuela’s government directs the Tren de Aragua gang in a campaign of “narco-terrorism” against the US, a claim Maduro denies.
US intelligence reports, including a declassified National Intelligence Council assessment in May, have found no evidence Maduro controls the gang, though they acknowledge Venezuela provides a permissive environment for its operations.
Background: Long-simmering tensions
Relations between Washington and Caracas have been fraught for years. Maduro accuses the US of interfering in Venezuela’s politics and backing the opposition.
After Trump’s second inauguration, his administration briefly engaged in talks, sending envoy Richard Grenell to Caracas. The visit secured the release of six American detainees and a limited resumption of deportation flights.
But ties quickly soured again, with Trump authirising broader military action against cartels and criminal groups in Latin America.
Venezuelan officials have since appealed to the United Nations to demand “the immediate cessation” of US military deployments in the Caribbean.
Maduro’s government has not yet commented on Tuesday’s strike.
