5 hours ago

Ana Faguy

Reuters

President Donald Trump has said the US has carried out a strike on a "dock area" linked to alleged Venezuelan drug boats.

Speaking to reporters in Florida on Monday, Trump said there had been a "major explosion" where "they load the boats up with drugs". He did not give details on where the dock was located, when it happened, or if the US military or CIA were involved.

Venezuela's government is yet to respond, and it is not clear whether the strike took place inside Venezuelan territory.

Since September, the US has carried out strikes on what it says are drug-smuggling boats, targeting more than 20 vessels, many from Venezuela, in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and killing at least 100 people.

The most recent strike was on Monday, with US Southern Command saying in a social media post that two "narco-terrorists" were killed in a "lethal kinetic strike" in the eastern Pacific.

Trump has previously threatened land strikes in Venezuela, as well as authorising covert CIA action in the nation, as part of a pressure campaign on President Nicolás Maduro.

Reporters asked Trump on Monday if the CIA had carried out the attack, and he said, "I don't want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don't want to say who it was".

"We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area... it's the implementation area. That's where they implement, and that is no longer around," he said of the strike.

Trump's comments are the second time he has mentioned the explosion. In a radio interview last week, Trump described a US operation against a "big facility", but he provided limited details.

The Pentagon referred questions from BBC News to the White House. The White House has yet to comment.

When the US has previously carried out strikes on alleged drug boats - including Monday's - the Pentagon has published images and videos on social media to confirm the strikes. So far, no images of the dock incident have been shared.

Ros Atkins on… the oil tanker being pursued by the US

The Trump administration has described strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as attacks against terrorists attempting to bring deadly and illegal drugs to the US by boat.

The US has deployed 15,000 troops and a range of aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious assault ships to the Caribbean.

The stated aim of the deployment - the largest to the region since the US invaded Panama in 1989 - is to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine to the US.

Among the ships is the USS Gerald Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier. US helicopters reportedly took off from it before US forces seized an oil tanker off Venezuela on 10 December.

The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of using oil revenues to fund drug-related crime. Venezuela condemned the seizures as "piracy".

Maduro has denied US claims that he is a cartel leader and has accused the US of using its "war on drugs" as an excuse to try to depose him and get its hands on Venezuela's vast oil reserves.

Last week, Trump was asked whether the goal of the seizures was to force Maduro from power. Trump responded: "Well, I think it probably would... That's up to him what he wants to do. I think it'd be smart for him to do that. But again, we're gonna find out."