FOOTAGE shows the US forces bombing another “narco boat” allegedly filled with drugs – killing six people on board.
This is the ninth such strike the American military has launched against suspected drug traffickers, killing at least 43 people so far.
Footage shared by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shows a small boat rocking around in choppy waters before it was targeted by a US missile.
A huge explosion then erupted, leaving the vessel up in flames.
Hegseth wrote: “Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.
“Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night.
“All six terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike.”
It comes as President Donald Trump waged war by declaring the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the Latin American “terrorist organisations”.
Trump has ordered the military to conduct lethal strikes off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks, as he says it’s a hotbed for drug traffickers who are bringing contraband into the US.
Asked about the latest boat attacks, Trump insisted that similar strikes could eventually come on land.
Trump told reporters: “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land… We are totally prepared to do that.”
He insists that the US military can target criminal organisations without inciting war with the southern nation.
“I’m not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“I think we’re just going to kill people who are bringing drugs into our country.”
The Pentagon has now sent the largest aircraft carrier in the world 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 is joining the ring of steel after Hegseth vowed to hunt narco-terrorist organisations “like Al Qaeda.”
Tensions are skyrocketing between the US and Venezuela, with an “unprecedented” battle escalating between Trump and dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro has claimed his country has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in “key air defence 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 at a broadcast event on Wednesday, according to CNN.
The Russian Igla-S missiles are short-range, low-altitude weapons that can take out small aerial targets like cruise missiles, drones, helicopters, and low-flying planes.
Maduro said the weapons had been deployed “even in the last mountain, the last town, and the last city of the territory.”
The Venezuelan president has repeatedly claimed that the US is trying to drive him out of power, as Trump has accused the country of harboring criminals.
Washington has offered a $50 million reward for anyone who can give information that will lead to Maduro’s arrest, Reuters reported.
Adding to the growing heat is Trump accusing Colombian President Gustavo Petro of being an “illegal drug leader.”
On Thursday, Trump sent some of America’s deadliest warplanes towards Venezuela in a powerful show of force.
This came after B-52 bombers and F-35 jets carried out an “attack demo” in the area.
