Explosions Ring Out Across Caracas As U.S. Special Ops Helicopters Fly Over City (Updated)
Explosions Ring Out Across Caracas As U.S. Special Ops Helicopters Fly Over City (Updated)
Howard Altman
Sat, January 3, 2026 at 7:29 AM UTC
4 min read
The U.S. attack on Caracas appears to be underway.
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Videos and images are emerging on social media showing what appears to be a large U.S. military operation now underway around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, which includes multiple large explosions and the presence of American special operations helicopters. While there has been no official announcement of such an operation kicking off, this comes after months of U.S. military buildup in the region aimed at pressuring cartels and Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
We have reached out to the White House, Pentagon, and U.S. Southern Command for comment and will update this story with any pertinent information provided.
Videos show explosions and the resulting clouds of smoke across the skyline.
Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base home to the Army Aviation also seems to have got hit in Caracas.pic.twitter.com/3D09lCzwGs
Other videos show 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) MH-47 Chinook helicopters (and what appear to likely be MH-60s) flying over Caracas as several explosions erupt in the background.
Full-scale military operations appear to be underway against Venezuela, with dozens of helicopters with the U.S. Army spotted over the capital of Caracas. pic.twitter.com/kIqfbGjOK4
Based on what we are seeing, which still has not been confirmed by the U.S. government at this time, it seems that large-scale kinetic actions inside Venezuela have begun as a new phase of Operation Southern Spear.
We will be updating this post with additional analysis and information. Stand by.
Update: 2:45AM EST—
The Pentagon and SOUTHCOM responded to our inquiry about what was going on and they told us to contact the White House without further comment. We haven’t gotten a response yet.
CBS News reports that Trump ordered the strikes, including on military facilities.
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BREAKING via @CBSNews: President Trump ordered strikes on sites inside Venezuela including military facilities, U.S. officials said, as the administration early Saturday ratcheted up its campaign against the regime of President Nicolás Maduro. via @JimLaPorta and me
Some thoughts on the timing of this operation. Flying special operations helicopters missions deep inside contested territory during nearly a full moon is far from ideal. It isn’t clear if something may have pushed-up a timeline for such an operation. Venezuela’s air defenses are not advanced, but they do pose a threat, which you can read all about here. The country also has many man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) that are especially problematic for helicopters. Regardless, either the threat was deemed low enough to move forward with helicopter operations or the risk was worth the potential reward. It’s also worth noting that air strikes likely wiped out known air defenses that could put the helicopters at risk, but Venezuela’s MANPADS (if they were widely deployed) and road-mobile SAMs are far harder, and in many cases impossible, to mitigate pre-planned strikes. Electronic and cyber warfare would have played a major role in this operation in regard to blunting air defenses, as well.
Timing is interesting here. Moon is nearly full, far from optimal for this kind of thing, especially using SOF helicopters deep into a metro area like this. Strikes likely helped clear air defenses for them, but that is unclear at this time. Target may have dictated the timeline…
A video showing a helicopter firing rockets at a targets on ground is said to have come from tonight’s operation, although we cannot confirm it. This looks like a common MH-60 Direct Action Penetrator or MH-6 Little Bird rocket attack run.
BREAKING:U.S. helicopters are POUNDING the Venezuelan military complex Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas pic.twitter.com/l9jblj2O5a
