A US strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela has killed six suspected drug traffickers, US President Donald Trump says.
Those who died in the strike were aboard the vessel and no US forces were harmed, Mr Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday, local time.
It is the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean since the Trump administration began treating alleged drug traffickers as unlawful combatants who must be met with military force.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike on Tuesday morning, Mr Trump said, as he released a video of the operation.
Mr Hegseth later shared the video in a post on X.
Mr Trump said the strike was conducted in international waters and "intelligence" had confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics.
He said the vessel was associated with "narcoterrorist networks" and was on a known drug-trafficking route.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press seeking more information on the latest boat strike, but a defence official confirmed the details in the social media post were accurate.
Calls for legal justification of strikes
Frustration with the Trump administration has been growing on Capitol Hill among members of both major political parties.
Some Republicans are seeking more information from the White House on the legal justification and details of the strikes, while Democrats claim the strikes violate US and international law.
The Senate last week voted on a war powers resolution barring the Trump administration from conducting the strikes unless Congress specifically authorised them, but it failed to pass.
In a memo to Congress obtained by the Associated Press, the Trump administration said it had determined that the US was "in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organisations" and that Mr Trump directed the Pentagon to "conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict".
The Trump administration had yet to provide underlying evidence to lawmakers proving the boats targeted by the US military were in fact carrying narcotics, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.
The strikes followed a build-up of US maritime forces in the Caribbean, unlike any seen in recent times.
Following Tuesday's strike, Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela's National Assembly and a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro, called on the press to combat US "lies" that were being used to justify a possible invasion.
"The objective is not the search for the truth and much less fighting drug trafficking," Mr Rodríguez said, adding it was about "looking for the way to have an excuse for aggression".
AP
