The latest strike, which Hegseth announced in a post on X, brings the number of such US attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead.

An accompanying video shared by Hegseth showed a boat speeding across the waves before being engulfed in smoke and flames.

"Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed," the Pentagon chief wrote.

He said the strike "was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics -- headed to America to poison our people."

"These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!" he added.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and some of his allies in the region condemned the attack.

The latest military action comes after President Donald Trump's administration said in a notice to Congress that he has determined the United States is engaged in "armed conflict" with drug cartels.

Washington has not released evidence to support its assertion that the targets of its strikes are drug smugglers, and experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers.

The administration's letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Thursday, was designed as a legal justification for at least three previous strikes.

"The president determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States," said the notice from the Pentagon, which also described suspected smugglers as "unlawful combatants."

- 'Armed aggression' -

Trump posted the same video as Hegseth on his Truth Social platform, saying that "a boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped... from entering American Territory."

Maduro called US actions in the region "an armed aggression to impose regime change, to impose puppet governments, and to steal Venezuela's oil, gas, gold and all natural resources."

Speaking at an event in Caracas, Maduro ordered the mobilization of reservists and militias "if it is necessary to move from unarmed combat to armed combat."

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), a leftist Latin American bloc co-founded by Maduro's late mentor, Hugo Chavez, condemned in a statement the "illegal incursion" by US fighter jets, deeming the raid a violation of international law.

ALBA argued that the repeated US strikes aim to "destabilize the region" and instill fear in its people.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro -- a fierce critic of Trump's policy of striking alleged traffickers -- wrote on X that "the narco-terrorists don't go in the boats -- the narcos live in the US, Europe and Dubai."

"There were poor Caribbean youths on that boat," Petro wrote, adding that striking vessels that could instead be intercepted at sea "violates the universal judicial principal of proportionality."

Tensions between the United States and Venezuela have been high over the deployment of multiple American warships in the region.

Venezuela said Thursday it had detected "an illegal incursion" by five US fighter jets flying off its shores, with Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino denouncing the alleged flights as a "provocation."

Trump last month dispatched 10 F-35 aircraft to Puerto Rico, a US territory in the Caribbean, as part of the biggest military deployment in the area in over three decades.

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