US Hit Drug Boat Loader       12/30 07:17

   President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. has "hit" a dock facility 
along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela, but the U.S. 
offered few details.

   PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. 
has "hit" a dock facility along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on 
Venezuela, but the U.S. offered few details.

   Trump initially seemed to confirm a strike in what appeared to be an 
impromptu radio interview Friday, and when questioned Monday by reporters about 
"an explosion in Venezuela," he said the U.S. struck a facility where boats 
accused of carrying drugs "load up."

   "There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up 
with drugs," Trump said as he met in Florida with Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu. "They load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats 
and now we hit the area. It's the implementation area. There's where they 
implement. And that is no longer around."

   It is part of an escalating effort to target what the Trump administration 
says are boats smuggling drugs bound for the United States. It moves closer to 
shore strikes that so far have been carried out by the military in 
international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

   The U.S. military said it conducted another strike on Monday against a boat 
accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people. 
The attacks have killed at least 107 people in 30 strikes since early 
September, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

   Trump declined to say if the U.S. military or the CIA carried out the strike 
on the dock or where it occurred. He did not confirm it happened in Venezuela.

   "I know exactly who it was, but I don't want to say who it was. But you know 
it was along the shore," Trump said.

   Trump first referenced the strike on Friday, when he called radio host John 
Catsimatidis during a program on WABC radio and discussed the U.S. strikes on 
alleged drug-carrying boats.

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

   Trump did not offer any additional details in the interview.

   Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or one of the U.S. military's social media 
accounts has in the past typically announced every boat strike in a post on X, 
but there has been no post of any strike on a facility.

   The Pentagon on Monday referred questions to the White House, which did not 
immediately respond to a message seeking more details. The press office of 
Venezuela's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on 
Trump's statement.

   Trump for months has suggested he may conduct land strikes in South America, 
in Venezuela or possibly another country, and in recent weeks has been saying 
the U.S. would move beyond striking boats and would strike on land "soon."

   In October, Trump confirmed he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert 
operations in Venezuela. The agency did not immediately respond to a message 
seeking comment Monday.

   Along with the strikes, the U.S. has sent warships, built up military forces 
in the region, seized two oil tankers and pursued a third.

   The Trump administration has said it is in "armed conflict" with drug 
cartels and seeking to stop the flow of narcotics into the United States.

   Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. 
military operations is to force him from power.

   White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair 
published this month that Trump "wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro 
'cries uncle.'"