Another US strike in Caribbean targets alleged drug-running boat, killing 6: Hegseth

Washington: The US military has conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday, blaming the Tren de Aragua gang for operating the vessel and leaving six people dead in the Caribbean.

In a social media post, Hegseth said the strike occurred overnight, and it marks the second time the Trump administration has tied one of its operations to the gang, which originated in a Venezuelan prison. The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks in September when they first began to three this week.

Two of the strikes this week were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding the area in which the military was launching attacks and where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.

In a 20-second black and white video of the strike posted to social media, a small boat can be seen apparently sitting motionless on the water when a long thin projectile descends on it, triggering an explosion.

The video ends before the blast dies down enough for the remains of the boat to be seen again.

Hegseth said the strike happened in international waters and boasted that it was the first one conducted at night.

“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth said in the post.

“Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

The strike also came hours after the US military flew a pair of supersonic heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela on Thursday.

The flight was just the most recent move in what has been an unusually large military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the

waters off Venezuela that has raised speculation that President Donald Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.agencies