US strike on alleged drug boat in Pacific kills four, as Trump accuses Venezuela of taking ‘our oil’

The announcement from Pete Hegseth comes a day after Trump issued a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela

The US military carried out a lethal strike on a vessel it said was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to defense secretary Pete Hegseth, as Trump further ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela, accusing the country of taking US oil.

On Wednesday Hegseth said the lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel engaged in narco-trafficking operations" had killed four people. The latest strike in the Pacific brings the death toll to 99 since the US began its campaign of striking alleged drug-trafficking boats in September.