// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
El Salvador's president threatens Haitian gangs over military hostages
El Salvador's president has said he has launched a military operation to rescue four air force personnel who have been missing in Haiti since Sunday.
Threatening further action, Nayib Bukele said that Wednesday's attack was "nothing" compared with what would happen if all the hostages - who he said were not combatants - were not returned alive.
They went missing after being ambushed by "heavily armed criminal groups," El Salvador's armed forces said. The ambush occurred in Croix-des-Bouquets, an area controlled by armed groups.
They were part of the so-called Gang Suppression Force (GSF), approved by the United Nations Security Council earlier this month, to tackle escalating gang violence in Haiti.
According to an X post from Bukele, the mission consisted of pilots and technical personnel, whose primary jobs were to "carry out medical evacuations and save lives, not to wage war".
His post said the Salvadoran military operation's single objective was to bring the four men back home alive.
He added that if all four were returned alive, without being harmed, "everything will go back to how it was before the kidnapping".
Bukele added they were kidnapped "in a cowardly manner" while returning after buying food at a market in the area.
A statement released by the Armed Forces of El Salvador on Sunday said the group was ambushed while travelling back to its camp in an armoured vehicle, which caught fire after being hit by explosives.
So far, no gang has claimed responsibility for the attack.