The US Military carried out another strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean on Thursday, leaving survivors among the boat’s crew, according to authorities.
It is not yet clear whether the US military offered aid to the survivors or whether they are in military custody.
A US official who informed Reuters of the strike did not provide any additional information on the attack.
It would be the first known account of survivors in the Trump administration’s strikes to counter narcoterrorist groups allegedly led by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
The White House and Pentagon did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
US forces have used missile strikes to blow up at least five suspected drug smuggling boats off the Venezuelan coast since September.
More than two dozen suspected narcoterrorists have been killed in the airstrikes.
As recently as Tuesday, the US military bombed an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, killing its six occupants, according to video of the obliteration posted by President Trump.
The strike comes as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander overseeing the US military operations against suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea, will retire at the end of the year.
Before Hegseth’s Thursday announcement. Holsey raised concerns about the barrage of strikes in the region, the New York Times reported, citing a US official.
But pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell vehemently denied the claim.
“This is a total lie. Never happened. There was no hesitation or concerns about this mission,” Parnell wrote on X.
The strikes come against the backdrop of an escalating standoff between President Trump and the Venezuelan government.
US military operations had built up in the Caribbean, including guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine, and roughly 6,500 troops.
Trump said Wednesday that he will also consider targeting Venezuela-based drug cartels on land.
“We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea under control,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“A lot of Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea. So you get to see that, but we’re going to stop them by land also.”
with Post wires
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