Washington [US], December 30: US President Donald Trump announced on December 29 that the US had "attacked" an area in Venezuela believed to be where drugs were being loaded onto trains, according to Reuters.
"There was a big explosion in the harbor area where the drugs were being loaded onto the ships. We attacked all the ships, and now we've attacked the area... that's the distribution area. That's the distribution area, and that area no longer exists," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Trump's statement marks the first time Washington has conducted ground operations in Venezuela since the campaign to pressure the government of President Nicolas Maduro began, according to Reuters. The Trump administration accuses President Maduro of running a drug cartel, but Maduro has denied the accusation.
When asked whether the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out the aforementioned attack, Trump said, "I don't want to say that." Earlier, Trump had stated that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
The CIA, the White House, and the Pentagon have not publicly commented on Trump's recent statements and declined to answer Reuters' questions. The Venezuelan government has not commented on the incident described by Trump, and there has been no independent report from Venezuela on the matter.
Later, the US military announced on social media platform X that they had carried out another deadly attack on a ship in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people and bringing the total death toll in Washington's anti-drug campaign at sea to at least 107, according to AFP.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper