Venezuela accused the United States of hitting residential areas in a wave of strikes early Saturday, and announced a major deployment of military resources.

The “invading” US forces “have desecrated our soil, going so far as to strike, using missiles and rockets fired from their combat helicopters, residential areas populated by civilians,” Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said in a video statement shared on social media.

Lopez added that the South American country would launch a “massive deployment of all land, air, naval, riverine and missile capabilities… for comprehensive defense.”

He said authorities were gathering “information on the injured and dead” in Washington’s “vile and cowardly attack”.

According to Lopez, residential areas were hit in the area of Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, situated in the south of Caracas, as well as in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira around the capital.

Explosions thundered across Caracas around 2:00 am (0600 GMT), rattling windows in many neighborhoods, AFP journalists reported.

More explosions were later recorded in other cities across the country.

The detonations continued in the capital for close to an hour while the sound of what seemed to be aircraft could be heard overhead.

Several areas of the capital were left without electricity.

Lopez expressed Venezuela’s “strongest condemnation” of the US attack, which he said was in “flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.”