CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time Saturday in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.
It was not immediately clear what was behind the explosions. Venezuela's government, the Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
People in various neighborhoods rushed to the streets. Some could be seen in the distance from various areas of Caracas.
This comes as the U.S. military has been targeting, in recent days, alleged drug-smuggling boats. On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the United States tocombat drug trafficking.
The South American country's President Nicolás Maduro also saidin a pretaped interviewaired Thursday that the U.S. wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began witha massive military deployment to the Caribbean Seain August.
Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the U.S. The CIA was behinda drone strike last weekat a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels in what was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes on boats in September.
U.S. President Donald Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land. The U.S. has alsoseized sanctioned oil tankersoff the coast of Venezuela, and Trumpordered a blockadeof others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country's economy.
The U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.
They followed a majorbuildup of American forcesin the waters off South America, including the arrival in November ofthe nation's most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.
Trump hasjustified the boat strikesas a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an"armed conflict" with drug cartels.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported on the explosions in Caracas on Saturday, showing images of the Venezuelan capital. Iran has been close to Venezuela for years, in part due to their shared enmity of the U.S.
