President Donald Trump has said the US will return two people who survived a strike on what he called a “drug-carrying submarine” to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia.
Writing on social media, Trump said two other people were killed in the US strike on the vessel, which he said US intelligence confirmed was “loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics”.
The attack on Thursday is at least the sixth US strike on ships in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks. It is the first time survivors have been reported.
At least 27 people were killed in the prior five boat strikes in the waters off Venezuela, according to figures released by the administration.
The two survivors were rescued by a US military helicopter and then shuttled onto a US warship in the Caribbean, unnamed US officials told US media earlier.
In recent weeks, Trump has ramped up threats against Venezuela’s leadership over claims that the country is sending drugs to the US. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused Trump of trying to make the South American nation “an American colony”.
Trump has defended the ongoing boat attacks, saying they are aimed at stemming the flow of drugs from Latin America into the US, but his government has not provided evidence or details about the identities of the vessels or those on board.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump said in his Truth Social post on Saturday.
“The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution.”
He added that no US military personnel were injured in the attack.
On Friday, the US president had said the submarine targeting the latest attack was “built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs”.
“This was not an innocent group of people. I don’t know too many people who have submarines, and that was an attack on a drug-carrying, loaded submarine,” he added.
UN-appointed human rights experts have described the US strikes as “extrajudicial executions”.
Trump earlier told reporters that he had authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, and that he was considering launching attacks on Venezuelan soil.
Narco-subs have become a popular way to transport drugs as they can go largely undetected, and can be sunk after delivery. They are often homemade and constructed using fibreglass and plywood.
The US, as well as other coastal nations, have previously intercepted some of these subs.
