WASHINGTON: The US has ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to a Puerto Rico airfield to conduct operations against drug cartels, two sources briefed on the matter said, in a move likely to further inflame tensions in the region.
The advanced fighter jets will be added to an already bristling US military presence in the southern Caribbean as President Donald Trump carries out a campaign pledge to crack down on groups he blames for funneling drugs into the United States.
Friday’s development comes three days after US forces attacked a boat that Trump said was carrying “massive amounts of drugs” from Venezuela, killing 11 people. The strike appeared to set the stage for a sustained military campaign in Latin America.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 10 fighter jets are being sent to conduct operations against designated narco-terrorist organizations operating in the southern Caribbean. The planes should arrive in the area by late next week, they said.
The US has deployed warships in the southern Caribbean in recent weeks, with the aim of carrying out Trump’s crackdown.
Seven US warships and one nuclear-powered fast attack submarine are either in the region or expected to be there soon, carrying more than 4,500 sailors and Marines. US Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit have been carrying out amphibious training and flight operations in southern Puerto Rico.
The buildup has put pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called “effectively a kingpin of a drug narco state.”
Maduro, at a rare news conference in Caracas on Monday, said the United States is “seeking a regime change through military threat.”
US officials have not said what legal justification was used for Tuesday’s air strike on the boat or what drugs were on board.
Trump said on Tuesday, without providing evidence, that the US military had identified the crew of the vessel as members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Washington designated a terrorist group in February.
US deploying 10 fighter jets to Puerto Rico for drug cartel fight, sources say
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US deploying 10 fighter jets to Puerto Rico for drug cartel fight, sources say
- The advanced fighter jets will be added to an already bristling US military presence in the southern Caribbean as President Donald Trump carries out a campaign pledge to crack down on groups he blames for funneling drugs into the United States
German authorities arrest five men suspected of planning Christmas market attack
BERLIN: German authorities have arrested five men suspected of being terrorist militants planning an attack on a Christmas market in southern Bavaria, police and prosecutors said in a joint statement. There has been a series of vehicle ramming attacks in Germany since a militant rammed a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in central Berlin in 2016. Last December several people were killed by an attack in Magdeburg.
Three Moroccan nationals aged 22, 28 and 30, an Egyptian national aged 56 and a 37-year-old Syrian were detained on Friday at the Suben border crossing between Germany and Austria, according to the joint statement late on Saturday.
Investigators believed that the men intended to drive a vehicle into a crowded market in the Dingolfing-Landau area with the aim of killing or injuring as many people as possible, the statement said, adding that authorities suspected a militant motive.
