El Salvador Launches Helicopter Air Assault On Haitian Gang Compound

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El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, launched an all-out helicopter assault on the compound of Haiti’s largest criminal organization.

Bukele wrote on X that Salvadoran troops destroyed a compound allegedly used by the leader of the 400 Mawozo gang.

“We kept our promise… We destroyed the house of Lanmò San Jou and the 400 Mawozo gang’s headquarters. Most of them ran away without even trying to fight,” Bukele said.

He shared footage showing multiple MH-6 Little Bird helicopters equipped with a variety of side-mounted guns, miniguns and cannons attacking 400 Mawozo’s compound and a house belonging to its leader, Wilson Joseph, known as Lanmò San Jou.

Local media outlets reported that as many as 20 people were killed in the strike early Sunday and that Joseph was not at the compound at the time of the air assault.

El Salvador has maintained a small troop presence in Haiti since January 2025. Bukele surged troops into the country last month to rescue four Salvadorans missing since an Oct. 18 ambush.

Bukele’s announcement comes as Haiti’s prime minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, prepares to visit El Salvador next week to discuss the future of Salvadoran troops in his gang-plagued Caribbean hellhole island.

The operation also comes ahead of Haiti’s elections scheduled for July and October next year, which would be the country’s first in more than a decade.