US President Donald Trump ordered strikes on sites inside Venezuela, including military facilities, US officials told CBS News, as the administration early Saturday ratcheted up its campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The strikes follow months of US military buildup in the region, with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and numerous other warships positioned in the Caribbean, CBS News reported.
In recent weeks, the US has seized two oil tankers off Venezuela, launched deadly strikes on more than 30 boats the administration says were carrying drugs, and struck what President Trump called "the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs," according to the US media report.
Multiple explosions rocked Venezuela's capital Caracas, early on Saturday and columns of black smoke and aircraft could be seen, according to Reuters witnesses and images circulating on social media.
A power outage affected the southern area of the city, near a major military base, witnesses said.
President Trump has repeatedly promised land operations in Venezuela. He has not publicly detailed his aims but has privately pressured President Nicolas Maduro to flee the nation, Reuters has reported. Trump said on Monday it would be "smart" for Maduro to leave power, per Reuters.
Maduro, meanwhile, has accused the Trump administration of seeking to colonize Venezuela, claiming it is after the country's vast fossil fuel reserves, Al Jazeera said.
Citing an official announcement from Venezuela, Al Jazeera reported that the Maduro administration has accused the US of launching attacks on civilian and military installations across several states, rejecting what it described as a "military aggression."
And Maduro has declared a national state of emergency, Al Jazeera reported.
According to CNN, the Pentagon and US Southern Command are referring CNN's request for comment on the explosions in Caracas to the White House.
The White House has not yet responded to CNN's request. CNN has also reached out to the National Security Council, according to the CNN report.
The president of neighboring Colombia is claiming on social media that Venezuela is under attack, the Guardian reported.
"Right now they are bombing Caracas … bombing it with missiles," Gustavo Petro wrote on X, calling for an immediate emergency session of the UN Security Council.
Maduro said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday on state television that Venezuela is open to negotiating an agreement with the US to combat drug trafficking, the AP reported.
He also reiterated that the US wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August, per the AP.
The interview was taped on New Year's Eve, the same day the US military announced strikes against five alleged drug-smuggling boats, according to a US media report.
The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 35 and the number of people killed to at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration. Venezuelans are among the victims, the AP said.
