Venezuela has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in “key air defense positions,” its President Nicolás Maduro claimed on Wednesday, amid growing tension over the United States’ military deployment in the Caribbean.
US President Donald Trump has said he is weighing military action inside Venezuela as part of a counter-drug trafficking campaign and a broader effort to weaken Maduro, a longtime foe of Washington.
“Any military force in the world knows the power of the Igla-S and Venezuela has no less than 5,000” of them, Maduro said during an event with military personnel broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión (VTV).
The Russian Igla-S missiles are short-range, low-altitude systems similar to American Stingers. They can shoot down small aerial targets such as cruise missiles and drones, as well as helicopters and low-flying planes.
Maduro said the missiles, light enough to be carried by a single soldier, had been deployed “even in the last mountain, the last town, and the last city of the territory.”
Continue reading the complete article on the original source
