Washington [US], October 6: President Donald Trump said the US military has attacked another ship it said was carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela and may attack drug trafficking operations on land.
Speaking at the Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Navy on October 5, President Trump said the military attacked a ship accused of transporting drugs off the coast of Venezuela on the evening of October 4.
"In recent weeks, the Navy has supported our mission to take narco-terrorists off the seas. We just carried out another strike last night," Mr. Trump said.
According to The Guardian , it is unclear whether President Trump was referring to the attack announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on October 3.
In a speech to thousands of sailors aboard the USS Harry S. Truman, Mr. Trump said the Navy was supporting the mission to "destroy the narco-terrorists." "There are no ships on the sea anymore. They can't be found," the president said.
The US Navy has also deployed a fleet of warships to the Caribbean, claiming to be there to stop drug trafficking groups.
President Trump added that if the drug smugglers don't travel by sea, "we're going to have to start looking on land because they're going to have to go by land. And I'll tell you that's not going to work out for them either."
Venezuela has not commented on Mr. Trump's statement. However, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said on October 5 that his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had called Caracas and expressed support and solidarity with Caracas after the U.S. attacks. Mr. Gil said Russia was committed to maintaining Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace.
The United Nations has condemned US air strikes in international waters as extrajudicial executions, despite the US justifying them as targeting "narco-terrorist" members of Tren de Aragua , a group designated by Washington as a foreign terrorist organization.
In a statement in September, the United Nations stressed that international law does not allow governments to kill alleged drug traffickers, but instead requires investigation and prosecution according to law.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
