SAN SALVADOR/PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Four Salvadoran air force members deployed with an international security force in Haiti are missing after an ambush by heavily armed criminal groups, El Salvador’s armed forces said late Sunday.
The Salvadoran team is part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, tasked with restoring security amid a bloody conflict with armed gangs.
• The Salvadoran group was attacked while returning to camp in an armored vehicle, the armed forces said in a statement
• The Salvadoran troops were able to flee after their vehicle was hit by explosives and caught fire, but contact was then lost
• Other countries with anti-gang operations in Haiti attempted to help. Salvadoran helicopters deployed to provide support came under fire
• “There have been multiple attempts to reach the area by land and air, but these have been hampered by the intensity of the fighting and the security conditions in the area,” El Salvador’s armed forces said
• The Gang Suppression Force said on Sunday that a vehicle carrying its personnel came under attack in the Santo area of Port-au-Prince
• GSF did not specify how many of its members were ambushed
• El Salvador deployed security forces to Haiti last year as part of an international effort to aid anti-gang efforts
• The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, said in September that 1,500 GSF troops were deployed in Haiti, with an additional 4,000 expected in the coming months
(Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza in San Salvador and Harold Isaac in Port Au Prince, Wriging by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon)
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