[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Two Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over a US Navy destroyer in the southern Caribbean sea as a show of force on Thursday, the Department of Defense said.
The act was the latest instance of saber rattling between President Donald Trump and President Nicolás Maduro, and comes two days after Trump ordered an air strike on a Venezuelan cartel boat.
The US warship, called the Jason Dunham, did not engage with the Venezuelan aircraft, according to The New York Times.
In a statement on Thursday night, the Pentagon explained that the planes came from Maduro regime and that they were sent there to 'interfere with our counter narco-terror operations'.
'This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter-narco-error operations,' the statement read.
'The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counternarcotics and counterterrorism operations carried out by the US military.'
What remains unclear is if this was a response to the Trump administration targeting the cartel boat. Trump said the strike on Tuesday killed 11 Tren de Aragua drug runners.
The Dunham, the ship that was flown over, is part of a small collection of warships and surveillance planes that have been amassed as part of the Pentagon's counternarcotics operation.
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