US military killed leader of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang in strike, Trump says

The US military has killed the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in an airstrike, President Donald Trump announced in a social media post.

“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero,” Trump wrote.

Niño Guerrero, whose full name is Hector Guerrero Flores, was the leader of Tren de Aragua. The gang is one of the most notorious criminal groups in Latin America and has been a target of the Trump administration.

The president has accused the group of engaging in “irregular warfare” against the US and declared it a foreign terrorist organisation, placing it in the same category as the Islamic State.

Trump posted footage of what appears to be the airstrike, showing a green building with a nearby shed being blown up. He added the action was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well”.

Tren de Aragua was originally a prison gang that Guerrero turned into a “transnational criminal organisation”, according the US state department, which had offered millions for information leading to his arrest.