PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar praised a US strike on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in the southern Caribbean and said that all traffickers should be killed “violently.” US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that 11 people were killed aboard the boat that had departed Venezuela, which is located near Trinidad and Tobago. “I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Persad-Bissessar said in a statement late Tuesday.

The attack is the first known operation since a recent surge of US warships to the region to combat cartels.

President Donald Trump said 11 members of the Tren de Aragua cartel were killed in the strike.