Delta Force and soldiers with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment were involved in the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in the early hours of Saturday, Task & Purpose has learned.
In a press conference Saturday morning, President Donald Trump said that no U.S. personnel were killed in the attack, which saw airstrikes hit several sites in Venezuela. U.S. special operations forces moved in by helicopter into the capital of Caracas and captured Maduro and his wife Celia Flores. They are now being held on a U.S. Navy ship in the Caribbean.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, speaking with Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, said that the attack — Operation Absolute Resolve — was a “culmination of months of planning and rehearsal.”
Troops were staged and “sat ready” during late December, Caine said. He pointed to good weather conditions on Friday night. Trump gave the approval shortly before 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
The operation involved 150 aircraft from 20 different bases and ships, Caine said, including Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps fighter jets and bombers.
160th SOAR helicopters flew low over the Caribbean Sea until they reached land. Fighters and bombers provided air cover. The helicopters fired on Venezuelan ground defenses “with overwhelming force” when the U.S. forces came under fire during the raid. One helicopter was damaged but remained operational during the mission, Caine said. The special operations force was “over the water at 3:29 a.m. Eastern Standard Time,” Caine added, and Maduro was taken to the USS Iwo Jima.
Trump said that the city was largely blacked out ahead of the raid “due to a certain expertise that we have.” U.S. Cyber Command, with oversees the military’s cyberwarfare capabilities, also took part in the operation, Caine said.
The United States is prepared to launch a second attack on Venezuela, Trump said. Asked repeatedly by members of the press, Trump did not rule out putting boots on the ground in Venezuela in the future.
Venezuela’s government declared an emergency as the attack started last night. The United States currently has more than 15,000 troops in the Caribbean region, including several destroyers and the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
The special operations units involved
Operation Absolute Resolve involved a large force from multiple parts of the military, but the raid to capture Maduro was carried out by two U.S. Army special operations forces, Delta Force and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
Also known as the “Night Stalkers,” the 160th SOAR provides air transport for special operations missions. They fly multiple helicopters, including MH-60L/M Black Hawk variants and MH-6 Little Birds. Based out of Fort Campbell, the unit was established in 1981 following the failure of Operation Eagle Claw. Its first combat action was in the invasion of Grenada in 1983.
The Night Stalkers saw extensive action during the Global War on Terror, including flying missions in the Battle of Tora Bora and the Battle of Takur Ghar. When Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003 during the Iraq War, 160th SOAR soldiers flew him to back to U.S. bases. The unit also flew the helicopters used to carry SEAL Team Six in the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden in 2011. 160th SOAR helicopters were spotted in the Caribbean in the fall, carrying out training exercises amid a wider U.S. military buildup.
Delta Force is one of the U.S. military’s most elite combat units. Formally known as Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, the unit was formed in 1977 as a counterterrorism and direct action force. Its members are drawn from other Army special operations units, including Army Special Forces (better known as Green Berets) and the 75th Ranger Regiment. Since its inception, Delta Force has been heavily involved in American conflicts abroad, taking part in combat operations and special missions in Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, among others. During Operation Gothic Serpent, the mission in Somalia in 1993, an Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, resulting in the 18-hour Battle of Mogadishu. Delta Force was heavily involved in the battle.
The unit also has a history of involvement in missions to capture heads of state or enemy groups. In addition to taking part in the Battle of Tora Bora, the failed attempt to capture Osama Bin Laden in 2001, they were part of the mission to arrest Manuel Noriega during the invasion of Panama in 1989. In 2003 they were part of the special operations task force that captured Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In October 2019, soldiers from Delta Force carried out the raid in Syria that resulted in the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
