US President Donald Trump says the country’s military has struck an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel vessel heading to America, the second such strike in recent weeks.

Trump said on Monday (US time) that the strike – which he said was in international waters – had killed three men.

He provided no evidence for his assertion that the boat was carrying drugs.

“This morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to US National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital US Interests.”

Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is the US military’s combatant command that encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean.

The post also included a nearly 30-second video, marked “unclassified”, which appeared to show a vessel in a body of water exploding and then on fire.

Later on Monday, Trump said that “we have proof, all you have to do is look at the cargo that was … spattered all over the ocean”.

Reuters conducted initial checks on the video with an AI detection tool but the video was partly blurred, making it impossible to confirm if the video was manipulated.

The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The incident comes less than a fortnight after the US military attacked another vessel from Venezuela in the Caribbean. It said it was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang and carrying illegal drugs.

Trump announced the strike on September 2, saying 11 people were killed in the operation but “no US forces were harmed”.

“We just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat,” he said.

“There’s more where that came from. We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time … These came out of Venezuela.”

Later, in a Truth Social post, he said that strike occurred “while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States”.

A defence official has since confirmed the US military conducted a “precision strike against a drug vessel” but declined to elaborate on how the attack was carried out, what kind of drugs were being targeted or who was on board.

The official only said the vessel was “operated by a designated narco-terrorist organisation”.

It all comes comes amid a large US military build-up in the southern Caribbean. Five US F-35 aircraft were seen landing in Puerto Rico on Saturday after the Trump administration ordered 10 of the stealth fighters to join the build-up.

There are also at least seven US warships in the region, along with one nuclear-powered submarine.

On Monday, Trump suggested possible land operations against suspected drug smugglers.

“When they come by land, we’re going to be stopping them the same way we stopped the boats,” he said.

“But maybe by talking about it a little bit, it won’t happen.”

Hours before Trump’s post, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the recent incidents between his country and the US were an “aggression” by the US and that communications between the two governments had largely ended.

-with AAP