SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — El Salvador deployed 100 special forces soldiers to Haiti on Thursday to help rescue four missing soldiers from the Central American country who recently came under attack by gangs, two officials told The Associated Press.
The special forces arrived a day after Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele announced a military operation to rescue the four aviation technicians and threatened a more forceful response if they’re not released alive and unharmed.
An official with El Salvador’s government not authorized to speak on the matter said an additional 100 soldiers were going to be deployed to Haiti on Thursday night. The official said Salvadorean authorities were operating under the assumption that the four missing Salvadoreans are still alive.
The Miami Herald first reported the deployment.
The gang suppression force issued a brief statement late Thursday saying that “a contingent” from El Salvador had arrived “to support ongoing search and security operations” where the attack occurred.
Haiti’s government said Wednesday evening that the four missing soldiers were abducted, marking its first comments since the attack that occurred Sunday in Croix-des-Bouquets. Authorities have said the soldiers were traveling in an armored vehicle that came under fire from gangs that also used explosives.
It’s the first major attack since the international gang suppression force began operations, replacing a Kenyan-led force that struggled to help Haitian police quell gang violence given a lack of resources and funds.
Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said he believes that finding the Salvadoreans will be like finding a needle in a haystack.
“It will be almost impossible to find them … unless the gangs agree to hand them over,” he said.
Da Rin said the Salvadoreans were apparently not traveling with the type of security detail needed so deep in gang-held territory, and it's not clear what they were doing in the area.
The attack occurred in territory controlled by the Chèn Méchan gang, with the 400 Mawozo gang operating just west of that area, a gang that is much more powerful and has far greater firepower.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and neither gang has posted about it on social media.
Da Rin said he believes the unaccounted for soldiers could serve as a negotiation tool for gangs.
“The silence surrounding the situation of the Salvadorans might actually help them increase the leverage they can use to compel the authorities to enter into negotiations,” he said. “I do not believe this kidnapping is so much an attempt to gain money, but rather an effort to prevent incursions into their territories.”
Authorities have been fighting armed men in the area ever since the attack occurred, with the Haitian National Police task force, which includes Vectus Global — the private security firm founded by former U.S. Navy SEAL and Blackwater founder Erik Prince — working with the gang suppression force as part of a joint operation. As the heavy fighting in deep, gang-controlled territory continues, residents have been warned to remain indoors.
The attack occurred as the gang suppression force numbers only a little over 2,000 of the 5,500 personnel envisioned.
“The (force) was not prepared to begin its offensive campaign against the gangs,” Da Rin said. “The risk of launching large-scale operations is that the gangs might rejoin forces… and launch coordinated attacks.”
He noted that the force generally makes incursions and clears territory that would then be secured by Haitian forces: “Now, all forces are playing an offensive role.”
On Wednesday night, a gang leader known as Krisla who controls an area that is not located near the site of the attack, posted a video in which he mentioned Bukele and the ongoing gunbattle.
“They have bigger weapons and more technology than we do, but we’ll fight to the end,” he said. “We didn’t ask Bukele to come here, we didn't ask Bukele to send soldiers here. Bukele has come here to protect his money at his soldiers' expense.”
Part of the contractors working with Prince's Vectus Global are from El Salvador, Da Rin noted.
El Salvador’s presidential office did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
Janetsky reported from Phoenix, Arizona.
FILE - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks at the National Palace as he hosts a meeting with U.S. congresspeople in San Salvador, El Salvador, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After Ashley Hinson dropped off her boys at school earlier this month, she saw the initials “DJT” flash on her phone.
“'Ashley, it's your favorite president,'” Iowa's Republican nominee for U.S. Senate recently recounted to an audience of her supporters. “That's how he introduced himself.”
She had had a more forceful message about communicating with President Donald Trump on the debate stage with her Democratic opponent, Josh Turek, as she tried to win over undecided voters.
“I’ll be President Trump’s ally when it is important for Iowa, but I will push back on him,” promised Hinson, who currently serves in the U.S. House. “He knows this.”
Although many Republicans are walking a political tightrope in this year's midterm elections, Hinson's balancing act is more challenging than most. Iowans have been hamstrung by manufacturing job losses, health care clinic closures and shrunken farm profits since Trump returned to the White House, but Hinson also is relying on the president's loyalists to show up for her.
On Thursday, Hinson took the stage before Trump came on, at a rally in Sioux City, which is in Iowa's conservative northwest corner. The visit to safe territory is geared toward boosting turnout even as it ties her more tightly to an unpopular president.
To hundreds of Trump's supporters, Hinson played up her relationship with the president.
“I’m not sure, frankly, that he’s always happy when we’re talking because I ask him for a lot of things for Iowa when we’re on the phone,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you would expect me to do, right? As your next United States senator.”
On stage, Trump quickly cast Turek as a “woke, far-left radical" and called on Iowans to reject him. He said if Democrats win in the midterms, that would be the “start of something very bad, very dark, very horrible for our country."
“I'm asking you to do me a very big favor," Trump said. “I'm asking you to pretend that I'm running.”
Trump is expected to visit the other side of the state on Nov. 1.
Turek, a state lawmaker, was in Sioux City for a campaign event Tuesday and told reporters he was happy for Trump to visit to see how his tariffs and the Iran war have “hurt Iowa more than any other state.” Although Turek says he's willing to work with Trump on issues like immigration, he calls Hinson a rubber stamp for the president's bad policies.
When Hinson kicked off her campaign last year, she touted Trump’s endorsement and said she was running to be Trump’s “top ally” in the Senate. Almost a year later, Hinson instead says she wants to be “Iowa’s best bipartisan fighter."
The message has crystallized since the summer, with more examples of Hinson vocalizing positions at odds with the president. Recent polling from late September and early October suggests it could work as she carves out about 1 in 10 voters who disapprove of the president even as she continues to secure overwhelming support from those who approve of Trump.
In August, she said Trump’s plan to increase beef imports from foreign countries in an attempt to lower prices was "a bad idea” that would hurt Iowa farmers.
Last month, two of Hinson's Iowa colleagues in the House broke with the White House and voted against Trump's ability to continue the war with Iran without congressional approval.
Hinson didn’t, but she said later the war has gotten too costly for Americans and called for Trump to bring the conflict to a “successful and immediate end.”
More recently, Hinson criticized Trump’s decision to ease sanctions on Russia in exchange for diesel fuel. She said Tuesday that the U.S. needs to make sure “dictators aren’t allowed to win wars.”
“I think the president and I share the goal of lowering costs for working families and for people who are using diesel,” she told reporters after a campaign event. “I, again, just don’t think we need to be making any deals with Russia.”
Hinson said she hadn’t talked with the president about the issue.
“Maybe I’ll have a chance to come have a conversation with him at the rally," she added.
Hinson isn't the only one pitching bipartisanship. So is Turek. In fact, he's the only Iowa candidate seeking federal office who explicitly mentions Trump in general election television advertisements, according to an Associated Press analysis of AdImpact data.
In one, Turek is behind the wheel speaking directly to a camera about Interstate 35, which “connects Iowa to the southern border and the broken immigration system that both parties have failed to fix." He says: “In the U.S. Senate, I’ll work with anyone to fix it, including President Trump, to secure the border, stop the flow of drugs into Iowa.”
Turek has pushed back on the president’s policies, including tariffs and the war in Iran, as the catalysts of high costs that are hurting Iowans, but his message on working with the president on immigration and other select issues stands out from other Democrats. Republicans say he's just pretending to be a moderate to get elected.
Mazie Stilwell, executive director of the progressive organization Progress Iowa, said Turek's message on immigration targets a bloc of voters on an issue that's particularly important to them but doesn't overshadow his otherwise disciplined focus on the high costs facing Iowans.
Trump’s visit to the state Thursday, she added, is “a terrific reminder of the disaster that he has been and his administration has been for our bottom line, for everyday Iowans who are trying to make ends meet.”
Iowa is no stranger to competitive Senate races even though Trump won the state by double digits in the last presidential election.
Ad spending on broadcast and cable television has already surpassed $200 million this cycle, AdImpact shows. But in today’s dollars, the total ad spending in the 2020 Senate race was even higher.
Republicans have spent slightly more for Hinson than Democrats for Turek. That was the opposite in 2020, when Democrats spent nearly $30 million more than the GOP did in their unsuccessful effort to unseat Sen. Joni Ernst.
Iowa Republican activist Kelley Koch has been concerned that complacency will dampen turnout from conservatives, even those who are loyal to the president.
"They say, ‘Why are you all hyped up about the midterms, Kelley, Trump will take care of everything,'” Koch said.
It’s an assumption she’s working to counteract, and she expects “the Trump effect” from his visits will help protect Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
And while Koch supports Hinson, she doesn’t like it when she talks about pushing back on Trump.
“Right now,” Koch said, “we had better unite around our president.”
Associated Press reporter Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed.
Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, speaks to supporters, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Ankeny, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
