COLOMBIA’S President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday there were “signs” that Colombian citizens were killed in the last small boat attacked by the United States military off the coast of Venezuela.

“A new front in the war has opened: the Caribbean,” Mr Petro wrote on the social platform X. “Signs show that the last bombed boat was Colombian with Colombian citizens aboard.”

He did not provide any explanation for what those signs were. “I hope that their families come forward and report it,” he said.

Neither Mr Petro’s office nor Colombia’s Defence Ministry responded immediately to requests for additional information.

The US government also has not identified who was aboard the boat, nor the three boats attacked previously.

Last Friday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela. He said the strike killed four men but offered no details on who they were or what group they belonged to.

The first military strike was carried out on September 2 on what US President Donald Trump said was a drug-carrying speedboat, killing 11.

Mr Trump claimed the boat was operated by the Aragua Train gang, which started in Venezuela's prisons and was listed by the US as foreign terrorist organisation earlier this year.

Then, on September 15, Mr Trump announced the US military had carried out a strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three people onboard.

On September 19, Mr Trump said in a social media that another strike was carried out against a vessel “affiliated with a designated terrorist organisation conducting narco trafficking,” in what the US designates as “area of responsibility” and killed three.

Earlier on Wednesday, Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino told military leaders that his government does not see the US warships deployment as a mere “propaganda-like action” and warned the population of a possible escalation.