The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee has vowed to review the alleged incident

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth strongly criticized The Washington Post, following a report that he had ordered U.S. military forces to carry out a "kill everyone" operation against a drug trafficking vessel in the Caribbean Sea in early September.

Senior members of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said they will investigate this allegation.

Over the past few months, the United States has amassed more than a dozen warships and about 15,000 soldiers near the coast of Venezuela as part of "Operation Southern Spear"; this operation is officially aimed at "drug terrorists."

President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of military action against this South American country. Meanwhile, Caracas has consistently denied any connection with drug cartels.

Hegseth posted on the X platform on Saturday, saying, "As always, fake news is producing more false, inciting, and defamatory reports aimed at tarnishing the outstanding warriors who fight for their country."

He did not directly deny these allegations but stated, "These highly effective strikes were intended to cause lethal, kinetic attacks."

The secretary added, "Every trafficker we eliminated was affiliated with a designated terrorist organization."

The Washington Post reported earlier on Saturday, citing "anonymous sources who have direct knowledge of the operation," that Hegseth had ordered a "kill everyone" attack on a ship on September 2, which was destroyed in the attack, killing all 11 people on board.

According to the newspaper, since then, the U.S. military has struck at least 22 vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific, resulting in the deaths of 71 suspected drug smugglers.

On Friday night, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Senator Roger Wicker, along with members of the committee's Democratic faction, issued a statement saying that they "take very seriously the reports of follow-up strikes against suspected drug trafficking vessels within the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area and are taking bipartisan action to fully understand the details of the relevant operations."

On Saturday, President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, claiming that "the airspace over and around Venezuela has been completely closed."

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry called Trump's remarks "colonialist threats."

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1850224518841344/

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