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El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, said on Wednesday that his military has launched an operation to rescue four soldiers missing in Haiti since a gang attack on Sunday, October 18, according to Al Jazeera. The four men are aviation technicians serving with the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, or GSF.
The attack took place in Croix-des-Bouquets, a commune north of Port-au-Prince. El Salvador's armed forces told the Associated Press that the technicians were returning to camp when explosives hit their armored vehicle and set it on fire. The men got out of the vehicle on foot. They have not been found.
Helicopters sent to the area came under fire while pushing back armed men. The Salvadoran military said fighting was heavy enough to block both land and air approaches. No group has claimed responsibility, though the area is contested by gangs including Chèn Méchan, Kraze Barye and 400 Mawozo.
Bukele announced the rescue operation on X without giving details. He said El Salvador would respond more forcefully if the men are not freed alive and well. Haiti's government called their release an "absolute priority" and met to plan stronger operations with the GSF.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told the Security Council on Monday that the four likely survived. "We will bring you home," he said. Romain Le Cour, an analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told the AP that gangs holding the soldiers would gain leverage to negotiate.
The GSF has told residents of the attack area to stay indoors while it assesses the situation. The force has more than 2,000 personnel in Haiti, from countries including Chad, Jamaica and Guatemala. Its special representative, Jack Christofides, said gangs are "testing" the force and that attacks against it have increased recently.
The attack is the first major strike on the GSF since it began operations. UN figures cited by the AP show more than 5,700 people killed or injured in Haiti between January and mid-September, and more than 230 kidnapped. Gangs are estimated to control about 70 percent of Port-au-Prince, and gang violence has displaced nearly 1.5 million people.
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