Trump says US strikes 'dock area' in Venezuela

Washington, Dec 30 (IANS) US President Donald Trump said that the United States knocked out last week a "dock area" in Venezuela, which was used by alleged drug traffickers to load boats up with drugs.

If his words were accurate, it would be the first known land strike by the Trump administration against the oil-rich South American nation, reports Xinhua news agency.

"There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs," Trump told reporters in Florida. "So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area -- it's an implementation area, that's where they implement, and that is no longer around."

He didn't reveal whether the Pentagon or another US entity carried out the operation.

Venezuela's government has yet to respond.

CNN, citing anonymous sources familiar with the operation, reported Monday night that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela," targeting a remote dock that US officials believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and transfer them onto boats for shipment.

No one was present at the site at the time of the strike, and there were no casualties, the sources said, adding that US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support for the operation.

Trump first revealed the strike in an interview with WABC radio on Friday, saying that his administration knocked out "a big facility" allegedly producing illicit drugs in Venezuela.

"We just knocked out -- I don't know if you read or you saw -- they have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out, so we hit them very hard," Trump said in the phone interview.

For months, the United States has been ramping up its military presence in Caribbean waters near Venezuela as part of what the White House has described as an anti-narco-terrorism campaign. It has sunk about 30 alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific since September, causing more than 100 deaths.

Venezuela has repeatedly accused Washington of seeking regime change and military expansion in Latin America.

On Friday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro expressed willingness to engage in dialogue with the United States on the basis of mutual respect, provided that the United States refrains from interfering in Venezuela.