Sep 5, 2025 - World

Pentagon: 2 Venezuelan planes flew near U.S. Navy ships in "provocative move"

Rebecca Falconer

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, with graying black hair and wearing a red, blue and gold striped tie, a white shirt and navy jacket, makes his thumb and index finger into a "c" shape in front of a purple background featuring the Venezuelan flag and the word "VENEZUELA" in white. — Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday. Photo: Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

Two Venezuelan military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy ship in international waters in a "highly provocative move" on Thursday, the Pentagon said.

The big picture: The incident came two days after President Trump announced that U.S. forces killed 11 suspected "Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists" in a U.S. military strike that he ordered in the Caribbean Sea off Venezuela's shores.

Trump has ordered a flotilla of ships off Venezuela's shores, ostensibly to stop drugs but also in hopes of sparking regime change and toppling Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, per Axios' Marc Caputo.

Zoom in: "Today, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters," the Defense Department said in a statement posted to X.

"This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations."
CBS News reported earlier Thursday that two "armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham," a guided-missile destroyer that's part of the flotilla.
Representatives for the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Axios' Thursday evening request for comment.

Go deeper: Democrats say they were left in the dark on Trump's drug boat strike

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Pentagon: 2 Venezuelan planes flew near U.S. Navy ships in "provocative move"

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