Pakistan launches a new security operation against militants near Afghan border

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces have launched a “targeted operation” against militants in a restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, displacing tens of thousands of residents who fled to safer areas, officials said Tuesday.

There was no formal announcement of the launch of the offensive in Bajaur, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but a government administrator, Saeed Ullah, said it was not a large-scale operation and only insurgent hideouts were being hit to avoid civilian casualties.

Another government administrator, Shahhid Ali, said the number of displaced people had rapidly increased to nearly 100,000.

On Tuesday, the provincial government in the northwest said it will give 50,000 rupees ($175) in compensation to each displaced family in Bajaur, where volunteers from the Al-Khidmat Foundation, a charity, were also seen distributing food among displaced families.

Among those displaced is Gul Wali, 50, who said it was the second time that he had been forced to flee his home, as he sat in a government shelter, "although we have been told we will return to our village soon.”

Wali said most homes in his village in the Mamund district were destroyed during the previous military offensive in 2009. "We do not know what will happen to our homes this time,” he said.

Residents reported that security forces, backed by helicopters, struck militant hideouts in the mountainous areas along the Afghan border. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Zulfiqar Hameed said the operation was ongoing.

However, no information was available about any casualties among troops or insurgents.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and have been living there openly since the Taliban takeover, and some have crossed the border back into Bajaur and carried out attacks.

Pakistan also carried out a major operation in Bajaur against Pakistani and foreign militants in 2009, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Pakistan claimed victory in 2010, when displaced people were allowed to return to homes.

Associated Press writers Rasool Dawar and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Internally Displaced People, who fled from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, walk at a camp set up in a sports complex in Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.

Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.

But other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)