US forces board Venezuela-linked oil tanker in Indian Ocean

WASHINGTON -- The US forces pursued a Venezuela-linked oil tanker from the Caribbean and boarded it in the Indian Ocean overnight, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday.

"Overnight, US military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident," Hegseth wrote on social media X.

"It ran, and we followed," he said, accusing the tanker of defying the US quarantine of sanctioned vessels traveling to or from Venezuela.

Aquila II, carrying about 700,000 barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude oil, departed from Venezuelan waters in early January, according to media reports.

"The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean ... You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us," Hegseth wrote.

The United States has maintained its blockade of oil vessels linked with Venezuela in the wake of the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Jan 3.