The images show theU.S. forces bomb another “narco ship” supposedly filled with drugs, killing six people on board.
This is the ninth such attack that the US military has launched against suspected drug traffickers, killing at least 43 people so far.
Footage shared by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shows a small ship bobbing in rough waters before being attacked by a US missile.
Then there was a huge explosion that left the ship in flames.
Hegseth wrote: “Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the War Department carried out a lethal kinetic attack against a ship operated by the Tren de Aragua (TdA), a designated terrorist organization trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea.
“Our intelligence knew that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting a known drug trafficking route and was transporting narcotics.
“Six male narcoterrorists were on board the ship during the attack, which took place in international waters and was the first nighttime attack.
“All six terrorists were killed and no US forces were injured in this attack.”
It comes as President Donald Trump waged war by declaring that the United States is in a “non-international armed conflict” with Latin American “terrorist organizations.”
Trump has ordered the military to carry out deadly attacks off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks, which he says is a hotbed for drug traffickers who are bringing contraband into the United States.
When asked about the latest attacks on ships, Trump insisted that similar attacks could eventually occur on land.
Trump told reporters: “We will hit them very hard when they come overland… We are fully prepared to do that.”
He insists that the US military can attack criminal organizations without inciting war with the southern nation.
“I’m not necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war,” he told reporters Thursday.
“I think we’re just going to kill people who bring drugs into our country.”
The Pentagon has now sent the world’s largest aircraft carrier to Venezuela as part of a growing effort to eliminate criminal networks in the Caribbean.
The Navy’s highly advanced Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group joins the circle of steel after Hegseth vowed to hunt down narcoterrorist organizations “like Al Qaeda.”
Tensions are soaring between the United States and Venezuela, as an “unprecedented” battle between Trump and dictator Nicolás Maduro intensifies.
Mature haHe stated that his country has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles.in “key air defense positions.”
“Any military force in the world knows the power of the Igla-S and Venezuela has no less than 5,000” of them, Maduro said in an event broadcast Wednesday, according to CNN.
Russian Igla-S missiles are short-range, low-altitude weapons that can destroy small aerial targets such as cruise missiles, drones, helicopters and low-flying aircraft.
Maduro said that the weapons had been deployed “even in the last mountain, in the last town and in the last city of the territory.”
The Venezuelan president has repeatedly claimed that the United States is trying to oust him from power, while Trump has accused the country of harboring criminals.
Washington has offered a $50 million reward to anyone who can provide information leading to Maduro’s arrest, Reuters reported.
Adding to the growing tension is the fact that Trump accuses Colombian President Gustavo Petro of being an “illegal drugs leader.”
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On Thursday, Trump sent some of the United States’ deadliest warplanes toward Venezuela in a powerful show of force.
This came after B-52 bombers and F-35 aircraft carried out a “strike demonstration” in the area.