Two US fighter jets were tracked circling the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday as tensions continue to escalate between the two countries. The F/A-18 Super Hornets appeared on flight tracking sites near Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city, at around 13:00 (17:00 GMT), before circling the gulf for about 40 minutes. A US defence official told the Associated Press the F/A-18 jets had conducted a 'routine training flight' in the area.
The incident comes amid a wave of US strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the White House said were trafficking drugs to the US from Venezuela. Experts have raised questions over the legality of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of using the strikes to destabilise the country and oust him from power.
In an interview conducted with Politico the day before the jets approached Venezuela's coastline, Trump declared that Maduro's days in power were 'numbered', and declined to comment on whether US troops could be deployed to the country. A separate jet, an EA-18G Growler, also appeared just before the F/A-18s on the tracking site FlightRadar24, flying loops just north of Venezuela's coast.
These flights are the latest in a number of unusual US air force activities tracked since September, including B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bombers flying near the Venezuelan coast. However, the F/A-18s appear to be the first to approach the coastline so visibly in recent months. The F/A-18s came within 20 nautical miles of the coastline, but US officials stated that the jets remained in international airspace.
The F/A-18s, operating under the callsigns RHINO11 and RHINO12, were reported to have flown six loops in the Gulf of Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Growler jet, under the codename GRIZZLY2, also circled along the coast. According to experts, the flights seemed to be 'probing' Venezuelan defence, gathering intelligence for potential subsequent operations. US Southern Command recently published images of an F/A-18 operating from the USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier sent to the Caribbean, indicating an intensified military presence in the region.
The incident comes amid a wave of US strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the White House said were trafficking drugs to the US from Venezuela. Experts have raised questions over the legality of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of using the strikes to destabilise the country and oust him from power.
In an interview conducted with Politico the day before the jets approached Venezuela's coastline, Trump declared that Maduro's days in power were 'numbered', and declined to comment on whether US troops could be deployed to the country. A separate jet, an EA-18G Growler, also appeared just before the F/A-18s on the tracking site FlightRadar24, flying loops just north of Venezuela's coast.
These flights are the latest in a number of unusual US air force activities tracked since September, including B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bombers flying near the Venezuelan coast. However, the F/A-18s appear to be the first to approach the coastline so visibly in recent months. The F/A-18s came within 20 nautical miles of the coastline, but US officials stated that the jets remained in international airspace.
The F/A-18s, operating under the callsigns RHINO11 and RHINO12, were reported to have flown six loops in the Gulf of Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Growler jet, under the codename GRIZZLY2, also circled along the coast. According to experts, the flights seemed to be 'probing' Venezuelan defence, gathering intelligence for potential subsequent operations. US Southern Command recently published images of an F/A-18 operating from the USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier sent to the Caribbean, indicating an intensified military presence in the region.
