Published On 20 Sep 2025
United States President Donald Trump says American forces have carried out a third strike targeting a ship that he claimed was “trafficking illicit narcotics”, killing at least three men on board.
The announcement, late on Friday, came as Venezuela accused the US of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean and called for a United Nations probe into the strikes.
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In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the latest “lethal kinetic strike” took place on his orders in the US Southern Command’s “area of responsibility”, a region that encompasses 31 countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans,” Trump said.
“The strike killed 3 male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel, which was in international waters. No US Forces were harmed in this strike.”
Trump posted minute-long aerial footage showing side-by-side videos of a vessel – one in colour and one in black and white – that is struck by a projectile as it moves through the water.
The video ends with the vessel seen ablaze in the water.
Trump did not offer evidence to back his claim nor say where the vessel departed from and where specifically the strike took place.
‘Undeclared war’
The attack came as the US deployed warships to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighters sent to Puerto Rico, in what it calls an anti-drug operation.
It has previously carried out two strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels that it claims originated in Venezuela.
On September 2, Trump announced that the US military conducted a strike on a small boat he accused of trafficking drugs for Tren de Aragua, a gang originating from the South American country, killing 11 people.
Trump described the deceased as “narcoterrorists” who were “transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States”.
On Monday, Trump announced a strike on a second alleged Venezuelan drug cartel vessel in international waters.
He said three men were killed in the attack, and they had been “positively identified” as working for “extraordinaril