Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said aircraft began launching soon after the go-ahead from about 20 bases and Navy ships, with Marines, the Navy, the Air Force and the Air National Guard providing cover as B-1 bombers loomed overhead.
“Over the course of the night, aircraft began launching from 20 different bases on land and sea,” Caine said. “In total, more than 150 aircraft — bombers, fighters, intelligence, surveillance and rotary-wing — were in the air.”
As helicopters provided air support, they came under fire, with one aircraft hit but remaining flyable, Caine said.
Explosions began rocking Caracas shortly before 2 a.m., according to AFP correspondents on the ground, as U.S. aircraft returned fire.
“They knew we were coming,” Trump said, pointing to months of escalating pressure. “But they were completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated.”
Caine said U.S. warplanes dismantled Venezuelan air defenses to clear the way into the capital, while power was cut to parts of the city in what officials described as a cyber operation.
“The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have,” Trump said. “It was dark, it was deadly.”
By 3:29 a.m., helicopters were reporting back over water as the force withdrew.
“There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela,” Caine said.
By the end of the roughly two-hour mission, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “gave up” and were “taken into custody by the Department of Justice,” Caine said.
One US aircraft was hit but remained flyable. Continue reading…
