US attack helicopters strike military targets in Caracas after Trump order as Venezuela declares national emergency

Another video seen by LBC shows US military attack helicopters engaging ground targets. The aircraft are believed to be either US Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper helicopters or US Army AH-64 Apache helicopters.

Smoke was seen rising from a hangar at a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was left without power. Despite the reports, Venezuelan state television did not interrupt its programming, continuing to broadcast a feature on Venezuelan music and art.

“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes in the distance,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker. “We felt like the air was hitting us.”

President Donald Trump ordered strikes on sites inside Venezuela, including military facilities, according to US officials.

The Pentagon referred all requests for comment to the White House.

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Venezuela’s government said the strikes, which were reported in Caracas early on Saturday, were part of an effort to “seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals”, and to “forcibly break the nation’s political independence”.

In response, President Nicolás Maduro said he had signed and ordered the implementation of a decree declaring a “state of external commotion” across the entire country.

Mr Maduro also ordered all national defence plans to be put in place “at the appropriate time and under the appropriate circumstances”, urging full mobilisation.

The Venezuelan government called on “all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilisation plans and condemn this imperialist attack”.

The escalation follows months of rising tensions between Washington and Caracas, amid US military operations in the region and ongoing pressure on Venezuela’s economy through sanctions and enforcement actions.

Another video seen by LBC appears to show multiple military aircraft flying over the capital, including Chinook transport helicopters alongside other attack and utility helicopters.

Mr Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the United States. Last week, a drone strike hit a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels. The operation was attributed to the CIA and was described as the first known direct US action on Venezuelan soil since strikes on suspected smuggling boats began in September.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that strikes on targets inside Venezuela were a possibility. His administration has also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the Venezuelan coast and ordered a blockade of others, a move widely seen as an effort to further tighten pressure on the country’s economy.

Since early September, US forces have carried out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. As of Friday, the Trump administration said there had been 35 confirmed strikes, with at least 115 people killed.

Those operations followed a major build-up of American military forces off South America, including the arrival in November of the country’s most advanced aircraft carrier, adding thousands of troops to what was already the largest US military presence in the region for generations.

Mr Trump has defended the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, arguing that the country is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

Iranian state television also reported on Saturday’s explosions, broadcasting images from Caracas. Iran has maintained close ties with Venezuela for years, in part due to their shared hostility towards the United States.