US President Donald Trump announced that US military forces carried out a new missile strike against a Venezuelan gang that was attempting to transport drug shipments to the United States via international waters.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social account: “This morning, at my direction, the United States military conducted a second strike against positively identified drug trafficking cartels and highly violent narco-terrorists within the Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility.”

The US President added:"The strike was carried out while these three Venezuelan terrorists were transporting an illegal shipment of drugs (a deadly weapon that poisons Americans!) through international waters, bound for the United States."

Trump noted that "these violent drug-trafficking gangs pose a threat to US national security, foreign policy, and vital US interests," stressing that the operation "resulted in the deaths of three terrorists, without any casualties among US forces."

Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US military had carried out a"lethal strike" in the Caribbean Sea against a drug-laden ship that had allegedly set sail from Venezuela. Maduro responded by accusing Rubio of effectively setting the White House's policy toward Caracas and of seeking to drag Trump into a military adventure against his country.