President Donald Trump said US forces had attacked a boat carrying drugs to the United States Tuesday, killing 11 "narcoterrorists" from a gang he alleged was controlled by leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Trump posted a video online of an open-topped speedboat carrying a number of people traveling on a body of water before it exploded in a ball of flames.
The move is a potentially significant escalation in the standoff between Caracas and Washington, after the United States deployed eight warships to Latin America in what it bills as a war on drug trafficking.
Trump initially announced at the White House that US forces had "shot out a boat... a drug carrying boat, lots of drugs in that boat" without giving details.
The Republican later posted a statement about the strike on his Truth Social network, along with the black and white video of the exploding boat.
"Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists," Trump said, without specifying the weapon used.
"The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action."
No US forces were harmed, Trump added.
He went on to allege that Tren de Aragua -- a Venezuelan group he has frequently referred to as part of his crackdown on undocumented migration -- was "operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro."
The United States designated the gang a terrorist organization earlier this year.
"Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!" Trump added in his post.
AFP has not been able to verify the number of people in the boat and their identities.
'Full might'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a vociferous critic of Maduro, vowed separately to keep using the "full might" of the United States to "eradicate" drug cartels.
Trump has "been very clear that he's going to use the full power of America, the full might of the United States, to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they're operating from," Rubio told reporters as he left Miami for a visit to Mexico.
Rubio earlier said on X that the vessel had "departed from Venezuela."
Venezuela's Maduro has cast the recent US deployment as a threat to the country.
There are currently eight US Navy ships involved in counter-narcotics efforts in Latin America: three amphibious assault ships, two destroyers, a cruiser and a littoral combat ship in the Caribbean and a destroyer in the eastern Pacific, a US defense official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
The announcement of the strike followed days of mounting tension between Washington and Caracas, with Maduro declaring a state of "maximum readiness" to defend against what he says are US military threats.
Maduro has been in Trump's crosshairs since the Republican's first term from 2017 to 2021.
But the US president's policy of maximum pressure, including an oil embargo, has failed to dislodge the Venezuelan leader from power.
Washington has doubled to $50 million a bounty for the capture of Maduro, whose re-election in 2024 and 2018 were not recognized by the United States or much of the international community amid allegations of fraud and voter oppression.
Analysts have told AFP that the deployment of the US warships was likely aimed at ramping up pressure on Maduro, who has repeatedly accused Trump of attempting to bring about regime change.
Last week, Caracas petitioned the United Nations to intervene in the dispute by demanding "the immediate cessation of the US military deployment in the Caribbean."
And on Monday, Maduro said Venezuela was prepared for "a period of armed struggle in defense of the national territory" in case of an attack.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said in a video message on Tuesday that the fall of the Maduro administration was "not far off" and that "Venezuela will soon be free."
"With each passing day, the net cast by Western democrats over the narco-terrorist cartel... closes in," she said in a video shown at a Venezuelan opposition event in Panama City.
By Danny Kemp and W.G. Dunlop with Shaun Tandon/AFP
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