Sources: US used civilian-painted plane in boat attack off Venezuela

Eleven people were killed in the first of many US attacks on ships off the coast of Venezuela that began in September.

Repainting the plane could constitute a war crime - which in Swedish can roughly be translated as "treacherous conduct," according to The New York Times.

"Hiding one's identity is an element of treacherous conduct. If an aircraft cannot be identified as a fighter plane when it is flying overhead, it should not be conducting combat operations," Steven J. Lepper, a retired major general who served in the US Air Force, told the newspaper.

More than a hundred people have been killed in repeated US attacks on ships in the Pacific and Caribbean seas since September.