The US military on Wednesday said it struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats over two days, killing eight people, while others jumped overboard and might have survived.
The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 35 and the number of people killed to at least 115 since early September last year, according to numbers announced by US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The White house also stepped up a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s oil exports by sanctioning companies based in Hong Kong and mainland China, along with related oil tankers it accused of evading restrictions.
Photo: Reuters
China is Venezuela’s biggest customer for oil exports, which represent about 95 percent of Venezuela’s revenue.
US Southern Command, which oversees South America, did not reveal where the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday occurred. Previous attacks have been in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
A video of Tuesday’s attack posted by Southern Command on social media showed three boats traveling in a close formation, which is unusual, and the military said they were in a convoy along known narcotrafficking routes and “had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes.”
The military did not provide evidence to back up the claim.
Three people were killed when the first boat was struck, while those in the other two boats jumped overboard and distanced themselves from the vessels before they were attacked, the military said.
It did not say whether those who jumped off the boats were rescued.
US forces attacked two more boats on Wednesday, killing five people who were allegedly smuggling drugs along known trafficking routes, Southern Command said in a separate statement, without providing evidence of trafficking.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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