(FILES) Members of the Salvadoran military parade during celebrations marking the 205th anniversary of El Salvador's independence, in San Salvador on September 15, 2026. (Photo by MARVIN RECINOS / AFP)
El Salvador has sent over 2,000 troops to Haiti as part of a "large-scale" operation to rescue four soldiers serving in a UN-backed force who went missing after an ambush, government officials confirmed Wednesday.
The soldiers with the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) disappeared on October 18 when attackers targeted their armored vehicle as they were returning to base from a market outside the capital Port-au-Prince.
"El Salvador will continue with the operational deployment of more than two thousand soldiers to rescue the four Salvadoran (soldiers), in a large-scale operation supported by various countries and international organizations," the Salvadoran foreign ministry said in a statement.
Officials said El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele spoke on the phone on Wednesday about the rescue mission with Haiti's Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime.
Bukele threatened last week in an X post written in Haitian Creole to wipe out Haiti's gangs, as he says he has done with those in El Salvador, if they did not release the Salvadorans.
The new soldiers will join forces previously deployed to Haiti to support the search operation in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac area near Port-au-Prince.
