Family members and local residents have identified two men from Trinidad and Tobago who are believed to be among six people killed in a US airstrike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela that Washington claims was involved in drug trafficking.

Police in Trinidad said they were still working to verify whether nationals were among the dead. However, residents of the north coast fishing village of Las Cuevas told The Guardian that two locals,  Chad “Charpo” Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, were believed to be on board the vessel when it was struck.

Joseph’s mother, Lenore Burnley, told local media that her 26-year-old son was not involved in drugs and that the family had yet to recover his body. “I leave everything in God’s hands,” she said.

Burnley told AFP by phone that acquaintances in Venezuela had informed her that her son was on the targeted boat. “According to maritime law, if you see a boat, you are supposed to stop the boat and intercept it, not just blow it up,” she said. “That’s our Trinidadian maritime law, and I think every fisherman and every human knows that.”

She added that Joseph had been planning to return home after spending three months with relatives in Venezuela, just 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) away.

Joseph’s grandmother, Christine Clement, also dismissed the US government’s claims, calling the strike “wickedness".

Trump announces unfounded strike 

Announcing the strike on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump claimed, without providing evidence, that the attack had eliminated six “narcoterrorists” in international waters. He alleged the group was smuggling drugs from Venezuela to the United States.

Police in Trinidad said residents from the coastal village of Las Cuevas reported that two locals were aboard the vessel that was later destroyed, though investigators have yet to confirm their deaths.

The latest incident adds to a growing number of fatal strikes off Venezuela’s coast. At least 27 people have been killed in similar operations, which the Trump administration defends as necessary to curb narcotics trafficking from the country.

Venezuela reacts to US military actions

In response to the US military buildup in the region, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday ordered large-scale military exercises, stating that the army, police forces, and a civilian militia would be mobilized to defend the country from foreign aggression.

The targeting of a civilian vessel and the possible deaths of foreign nationals have raised questions about the legality of such operations under international and Trinidadian maritime law.

Read more: US approves covert CIA action in Venezuela: Reports

On Tuesday, October 14, the US targeted a vessel off the coast of Venezuela with an airstrike, killing six and marking the fifth operation of this kind in a recent push of American aggressions against Latin America under the pretext of combating narco-trafficking.  

Trump stated in a Truth Social post announcing the operation that the vessel was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization," adding: "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route." 

To date, the death toll as a result of such attacks has risen to at least 27, and neither Trump nor other heads in the US state department released information as to who those on board these vessels were, nor did they confirm the alleged ties they had with narco trafficking networks. 

Read more: Trinidad PM threatens force against Venezuelan vessels