WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States had carried out a strike on a vessel allegedly carrying drugs in the US Southern Command’s area of responsibility, the latest US strike in the region.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the Pentagon had ordered the strike and killed “3 male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel.”
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans.”
Trump did not specify where the vessel departed from or where exactly the strike took place.
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is the US military’s combatant command that encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean.
The latest strike comes amid a large US military build-up in the southern Caribbean. Five US F-35 aircraft were seen landing in Puerto Rico on Saturday after the Trump administration ordered 10 of the stealth fighters to join the build-up.
There are also at least seven US warships in the region, along with one nuclear-powered submarine.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
