By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Venezuela has asked the United Nations Security Council to determine that deadly U.S. strikes on vessels off its coast are illegal and issue a statement backing Venezuela’s sovereignty, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a large U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean, and the troops have conducted at least five strikes on vessels the Trump administration has described as involved in drug trafficking, without providing evidence.

In a letter to the 15-member Security Council, dated Wednesday, Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada accused Washington of killing at least 27 people in the strikes on “civilian vessels transiting international waters.”

He asked the council to “in

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