Dramatic images have laid bare the devastation of US strikes carried out on Venezuela as part of the overnight operation to seize dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Aerial photographs show how several buildings were wiped out in a single strike, leaving behind charred tracts of land and smoke billowing overhead.
The strikes targeted Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex in Caracas.
It comes as a top Venezuelan official told the New York Times that 40 people are believed to have been killed in the strikes, including both military personnel and civilians.
Trump said the ‘large scale strike’ was conducted in order to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who are now being held in custody in New York City on drug trafficking charges.
Maduro and Flores are being held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, which is famous for its squalid conditions and has also housed Luigi Mangione and Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs.
Trump said the United States would govern Venezuela indefinitely in the meantime, after dismissing the prospect of the country’s popular opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, taking the reins, claiming she ‘does not have the support’.
Dramatic images have laid bare the devastation of US strikes on Venezuela carried out by troops as part of the overnight operation to seize Maduro. The above images show Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas, before and after the strikes
The aerial photographs, like those shown above, illustrate where several buildings were wiped out in a single strike, alongside charred tracts of land surrounding the compounds
Trump’s strikes targeted Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas
Some 40 people are believed to have been killed in the strikes, including civilians
Trump said the ‘large scale strike’ was conducted in order to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who are now being held in custody in New York City on drug trafficking charges
