Three boats with a total of 11 people on board were destroyed in an air strike by US forces, The Washington Post reported, citing Pentagon data.
The strike is part of a large-scale US naval operation aimed at drug trafficking and the smuggling of oil from Venezuela.
Since the operation began in September, 43 vessels have been destroyed, killing no less than 133 people. The US administration calls these people “narco-terrorists”, without providing specific evidence of their ties to drug cartels and without revealing their identities.
The last three vessels were hit in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean - one of the traditional routes for drug smuggling from Colombia and Ecuador, US authorities emphasize.