US kills six people in strike on alleged drug boat off Venezuela

President Donald Trump has said that the US struck another small boat that he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, killing six people aboard.

The Republican president said on Tuesday in a post on social media that six people aboard the vessel were killed in the strike and no US forces were harmed.

It is the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean as the Trump administration has asserted that it is treating alleged drug traffickers as unlawful combatants who must be met with military force.

Frustration with the administration has been growing on Capitol Hill among members of both parties.

Some Republicans are seeking more information from the White House on the legal justification and details of the strikes. Democrats contend the strikes violate US and international law.

Dozens of people have been killed in the US strikes so far, according to US officials.

The Trump administration has designated drug cartels, such as Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, and El Salvador's MS-13, as "terrorist" organisations.

The US Navy has deployed multiple warships and aircraft to the Caribbean and Pacific near Central and South America for what it says are "counter-narcotics" operations.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has condemned the US military buildup, calling it an "illegal" attempt to topple his government.

He has accused Washington of using its counter-narcotics campaign as a pretext for aggression and warned that any US attack would trigger a "national mobilisation".

Last week, Maduro said that security forces had foiled what he called a "false flag" plot by local terrorists to plant explosives at the US embassy in Caracas in an attempt to escalate tensions between Venezuela and the US.

The United States has made Venezuela a focus of its anti-drug operations, even though most narcotics entering the country originate in or transit through Mexico.

Washington is also offering a $50 million reward for Maduro's arrest, accusing him of ties to drug cartels and criminal networks.

Last week, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said that a vessel in the Caribbean bombed by the US was Colombian and had Colombian citizens aboard.

"A new war scenario has opened up: the Caribbean," Petro said in a post on X. "The aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Source: TRT