US President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed the US military’s latest attack against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and stated that this time the target was a submarine. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
“We attacked a submarine, and it was a drug-carrying submarine, built specifically to transport massive amounts of drugs,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Thursday’s attack on the vessel, which reportedly left several survivors. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was next to Trump, did not confirm whether anyone survived the attack. He added that more information would likely be provided later on Friday.
Trump subsequently declared that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had offered major concessions to ease tensions with Washington in response to the aforementioned attack. “He offered everything, you’re right. You know why? Because he doesn’t want to mess with the United States,” Trump said when asked by a White House reporter about the latest news that Caracas has submitted plans for de-escalation.
Washington accuses Maduro of leading a drug cartel and has deployed significant military assets – including fighter jets and seven US Navy ships – to what he described as an anti-drug operation in international waters.
At the beginning of this week, American B-52 bombers circled the sea off the coast of Venezuela for several hours, according to Flightradar24, a website that records flight traffic. The US military said on Friday that these the flights demonstrated “the US commitment to proactively deter adversary threats, improve aircrew training and ensure the global readiness of its forces.”
These moves have raised concerns in Caracas that Washington’s ultimate goal is regime change in Venezuela. The US government says it has conclusive evidence that the attacked Venezuelan vessels were smuggling drugs into the United States. However, she did not provide any details to support these claims.
