
United States President Donald Trump said that US forces attacked a boat carrying drugs to the United States on Tuesday, killing 11 “narcoterrorists” from a gang he alleged was controlled by leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Trump posted a video online of an open-topped speedboat carrying several people travelling on a body of water before it exploded in a ball of flames. The move is a potentially significant escalation in the standoff between Caracas and Washington, after the United States deployed eight warships to Latin America in what it bills as a war on drug trafficking. Trump initially announced at the White House that US forces had “shot out a boat … a drug-carrying boat, lots of drugs in that boat” without giving details. The Republican later posted a statement about the strike on his Truth Social network, along with the black and white video of the exploding boat. “Earlier this morning, on my orders, US Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua n...