The New York Times, an American daily newspaper, has reported that the vessel carrying the alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers killed in the lethal strike reportedly turned around before it was struck and des­troyed by a US military aircraft in the southern Caribbean Sea.The report by The New York Times yesterday said that American officials familiar with the case indicated that the vessel had altered its course and turned around just before the attack was carried out.The men on board had seen the military aircraft trailing it, the report says.According to the report, officials who spoke with The New York Times anonymously said the military had hit the vessel repeatedly before it sank to the bottom of the ocean.The White House last week stated that US military forces had completed a strike against the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang while they were at sea in international waters. The strike resulted in 11 deemed “terrorists” killed in action, it said.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the vessel had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a de­signated narco-terrorist organisation.Speaking with report­ers after the incident, Rubio said that suspected drugs on board du­ring the strike were likely headed to Trinidad or another Caribbean country, contri­buting to their “instability”.Footage released of the attack depicted the craft with multiple persons on board being struck and then engulfed in fire.According to The New York Times report, “Officials briefed on the strike said that the video does not tell the entire story. It does not show the boat turning after the people aboard were apparently spooked by an aircraft above them, nor does it show the military ma­king repeated strikes on the vessel even after disabling it, the officials said.”Venezuelan media last week reported that the 11 men who were killed had reportedly departed from San Juan de Unare, a small coastal fishing town off the Arismendi municipality of Sucre, Venezuela—less than 100 miles (161 kilometres) from Trinidad’s northern coastReports from independent media El Pitazo last week said the vessel had left the Venezuelan coast last Sunday and was destroyed on Monday in the Caribbean Sea.Eight of the men were natives of the area, and three were from neighbouring towns, it said.Despite Rubio’s ini­tial comments, US admi­nistration officials have reportedly characte­rised the vessel as being destined for the United States.Still, US officials have not confirmed the identity of the men on board, the quantity or type of drugs suspected on board the vessel, the route it was on or the location of the attack.According to Google maps, the distance between San Juan de Unare and the nearest US State, Florida, is 2,470.85 kilometres (1,535.31 miles). The distance between the coastal Venezuelan town and Trinidad’s northern coast is approximately 65 miles.


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