US military carries out 30th strike on alleged drug boat
WASHINGTON– The US military announced Monday that it had carried out a new strike against a boat accused of drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people.
The strike, announced by the United States Southern Command on social media, brings the total number of known boat collisions to 30 and the number of people killed to at least 107 since the beginning of September, according to figures announced by the Trump administration.
The military said the ship “was engaged in drug trafficking operations,” but did not provide evidence to support this claim.
In a video of the strike posted on social media, a boat can be seen moving through the water before being hit by two explosions.
President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and claimed that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Along with the strikes, the Trump administration has been strengthening its military forces in the region as part of a growing pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is accused of narcoterrorism in the United States.
Trump, asked by reporters Monday about “an explosion in Venezuela,” said the United States had “hit” a pier along a shore where boats accused of carrying drugs were “loading.”
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they were loading the drug boats,” Trump said while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida. Trump, the White House and the Pentagon provided no further details.
In December, the Trump administration also launched a new tactic, seizing two sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela and pursuing a third. As a result, some sanctioned oil tankers have started to turn away from the South American country.
Maduro insisted that the real aim of the US operations was to remove him from power. For months, Trump has been hinting that he could carry out ground strikes in Venezuela or possibly another country.
The Trump administration has faced scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign. This developed amid revelations that the first attack, in early September, involved a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.
