Washington DC - A top Venezuelan official accused President Donald Trump's administration of murder as Democrats continued to question the Pentagon's deadly attack on a boat in Caribbean waters.

Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed said Defense Department officials provided no evidence for their claims that the 11 people killed in the strike targets were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or that they were transporting drugs.

"They have offered no positive identification that the boat was Venezuelan, nor that its crew were members of Tren de Aragua or any other cartel," Reed said after attending Pentagon briefing, per CNN.

Trump claimed that the boat was stocked with illicit drugs, manned by gang members, and headed for the US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also called the boat a "drug vessel... operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization."

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But according to recent reports, the boat may have been returning to shore as crew members realized they were being targeted.

"There is no evidence, none, that this strike was conducted in self-defense," Reed said of the attack. "That matters, because... the US military simply does not have the authority to use lethal force against a civilian vessel unless acting in self-defense."

Venezuela's minister for the interior, Diosdado Cabello, said an investigation revealed the people on the boat were not members of Tren de Aragua, according to the Guardian. He accused the US of committing murder.