Overview
- Pentagon officials say seven U.S. service members were injured during Operation Absolute Resolve, with five back on duty and two recovering.
- Venezuelan authorities report at least 24 security officers killed and Cuba says 32 of its personnel died; Caracas has opened a probe and labeled the operation a war crime.
- Some air assets, including a dozen F-22s, have left the Caribbean, while a carrier group and Marine expeditionary unit remain at sea to enforce oil-focused pressure.
- The raid involved more than 150 aircraft striking Venezuelan military sites, primarily air defenses, to support a nearly 200-strong ground force that seized Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.
- Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan courtroom to drug and weapons charges as the U.S. frames the action as law enforcement, drawing denunciations from China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea and Iran.