US seizes Russian-flagged vessel; oil tanker linked to Venezuela; Moscow submarine, warship nearby

The United States seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker with links to Venezuela after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic, as a Russian submarine and warship were close by, official spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday .The seizure, which could stoke tensions with Russia, came after the tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, slipped through a US maritime "blockade" of sanctioned tankers and rebuffed US Coast Guard efforts to board it.The US had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a U.S. blockade around Venezuela, AP reported.

They added that Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity of the operation, including a Russian submarine.

It was unclear how close the vessels were to the operation, which was taking place close to Iceland.The US Coast Guard first attempted to intercept the vessel last month, but it refused to be boarded. Since then, it registered under a Russian flag, Reuters reported.The tanker, now known as the Marinera, was the latest tanker targeted by the US Coast Guard since the start of US President Donald Trump's pressure campaign against Venezuela.

Separately, the US Coast Guard also intercepted another Venezuela-linked tanker in Latin American waters, US officials told Reuters, as the US continued enforcing a maritime "blockade" of sanctioned vessels from Venezuela.The moves came just days after US special forces swooped into Caracas before dawn on Saturday in a deadly raid to seize President Nicolas Maduro and take him to the United States. The US military turned him over to federal authorities for prosecution on charges involving alleged drug trafficking.Top Venezuelan officials called Maduro's capture a kidnapping and accused the US of trying to steal the country's vast oil reserves, estimated to be the largest in the world.In turn, Trump and top US officials accused Venezuela of stealing US oil, in an apparent reference to the country's nationalisation of its energy sector in several waves over the past half-century.