February 9, 2026 at 4:24 PM
The D Brief: More maritime strikes, seizure; Warships off Haiti; US official hints at new nukes; Introducing ‘Fictional Intelligence’; And a bit more.
The U.S. military seized its eighth tanker allegedly linked to Venezuela, the Defense Department said on social media Monday. The interdiction occurred "without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility,"...
The U.S. military seized its eighth tanker allegedly linked to Venezuela, the Defense Department said on social media Monday. The interdiction occurred “without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility,” according to the post, which claimed the incident happened “overnight” though the accompanying one-minute video showed a daytime operation.
“Suezmax tanker Aquila II departed from Venezuelan waters in early January…carrying about 700,000 barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude bound for China,” Reuters reports. U.S. forces “tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean,” the Defense Department said in a statement, and added, “By land, air, or sea, our Armed Forces will find you and deliver justice.