2 w. ago CIA concludes Ukraine did not target Putin’s residence in drone strike

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has concluded that Ukraine did not target Russian President Vladimir Putin or one of his residences in a recent drone attack, US media have reported. Various media, including The Wall Street Journal as well as the broadcasters PBS and CNN, cited unnamed US government officials in their reports published on Wednesday evening, contradicting serious accusations made by Moscow at the start of the week. Initially, US President Donald Trump also criticised...

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2 w. ago US Coast Guard searches for survivors after strike on alleged drug boat convoy

The United States Coast Guard is searching for survivors of a US military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, US officials said on Wednesday. President Donald Trump’s administration has carried out more than 30 strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since September in a campaign that has killed at least 110 people. In a statement, the US military’s Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three...

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2 w. ago CIA behind drone strike on drug boat loading facility in Venezuela: sources

The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to two people familiar with details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the classified matter. The first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began strikes in September marked a significant escalation in the administration’s months-long pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The strike has not been...

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2 w. ago CIA behind drone strike on ‘big facility’ in Venezuela: sources

The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to two people familiar with details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the classified matter. The first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the US began strikes in September marked a significant escalation in the administration’s months-long pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government. The strike has not been...

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2 w. ago Trump hints at land strike against drug cartels as Venezuela pressure mounts

A throwaway remark last week by US President Donald Trump has raised questions about whether US forces may have carried out their first land strike against drug cartels in Venezuela. Trump said the US knocked out a “big facility” for producing trafficking boats, as he was discussing his pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an interview broadcast on Friday. “They have a big plant or a big facility where they send, you know, where the ships come from,” Trump said in an...

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2 w. ago Trump says US ‘hit’ drug boat loading facility in Venezuela pressure campaign

US President Donald Trump has indicated that the US has “hit” a dock facility along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela, but the US 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 US struck a facility where boats accused of carrying drugs “load up”. “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the...

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