Haiti Gangs Hit UN-Backed Force in Biggest Attack Yet as Four Salvadoran Troops Go Missing, Rattling South Florida

Gangs in Haiti carried out the biggest attack yet on the U.N.-backed Gang Suppression Force on Sunday, setting an armored vehicle ablaze with explosives in Croix-des-Bouquets on the edge of Port-au-Prince and leaving four Salvadoran military aviation technicians unaccounted for, according to the Armed Forces of El Salvador. The assault lands squarely on South Florida, home to the largest Haitian community in the United States, where about 158,000 Haitians lost Temporary Protected Status this summer and now face deportation to the country where the violence is escalating.

The U.N. Security Council was scheduled to meet Monday on Haiti, with the attack expected to dominate the session, The Associated Press reported.

What happened in Croix-des-Bouquets

The Salvadoran military said in a statement Monday that gunmen attacked the armored vehicle with explosives and set it on fire, and that four men fled the burning vehicle. Those four aviation technicians had not been located as of Monday, the military said. Helicopters sent to the area to reach them came under fire, and the Salvadoran armed forces said repeated attempts had been made to approach by both land and air.

Officials had not confirmed whether the missing men were taken by the gangs. The Gang Suppression Force said it was assessing the situation and advised residents of the area to stay indoors, according to AP reporting.

No group claimed responsibility. The area is controlled by two of Haiti's most notorious gangs: Kraze Barye, led by Vitelhomme Innocent, and 400 Mawozo, led by Lanmo Sanjou. Both leaders are under U.N. and U.S. sanctions.

Romain Le Cour, an analyst with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told the AP that while some gangs are under pressure from the force, others want to show they can strike back.

A gang leader with a Miami case file

Innocent is no stranger to federal investigators in Florida. The FBI's Miami Field Office announced in November 2023 that he had been placed on the bureau's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and the State Department has offered a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., have charged Innocent in connection with the October 2021 kidnapping of 16 American missionaries near Port-au-Prince, an abduction the FBI says his gang carried out with 400 Mawozo. A separate indictment, unsealed in October 2023, accuses him of a role in the October 2022 hostage-taking of two U.S. citizens in Haiti, one of whom, Marie Odette Franklin, was shot and killed. The FBI's Miami office worked those cases, and the bureau believes Innocent remains in Haiti.

The force and its mandate

The U.N. Security Council authorized the Gang Suppression Force in September 2025 to replace an underfunded, Kenyan-led police mission that had struggled to roll back gang control. The force is authorized for up to 5,550 personnel but has only a fraction of that on the ground.

The council renewed the mandate for six months on Sept. 29 by a 12-0 vote, with China, Russia and Pakistan abstaining over concerns about funding, staffing and effectiveness, according to reports on the vote. The United States co-sponsored the resolution. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz has said about 1,500 personnel are serving, with the rest expected in the coming months.

El Salvador's role in Haiti predates the new force. Its first contingent of about 70 soldiers arrived in early 2025 to provide aviation support, mainly medical evacuations, for the earlier Kenyan-led mission.

The attack comes as Haiti prepares for its first general elections in more than a decade. Gangs control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince, according to the AP. Gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people, and from January to mid-September more than 5,700 people were killed or injured and more than 230 were kidnapped, according to the United Nations.

Why it matters in South Florida

For Haitian families in Miami's Little Haiti, North Miami, North Miami Beach and communities across Broward and Palm Beach counties, news from Croix-des-Bouquets is personal. Many have relatives in and around the capital, and churches, radio stations and community groups in South Florida often serve as the first line of information when violence flares.

The attack also lands in the middle of a deportation fight. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 25 that the Trump administration could end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, a protection first granted after the 2010 earthquake. The terminations took effect July 27. WLRN has reported that the decision stripped protection from about 350,000 Haitians nationwide, including about 158,000 in Florida, most of them in South Florida.

Deportation flights followed. A charter carrying 161 people, including children, landed in Cap-Haitien on Aug. 20 after a final U.S. stop at Opa-locka Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, according to published reports, and a second flight followed about a week later.

Advocates argue the violence shows Haiti is not safe for returns. On Sept. 10, Haitian community leaders and the Florida Immigrant Coalition rallied outside U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody's Miami office and announced billboards on I-95 in Miami and in Tampa urging Moody and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott to protect former TPS holders. Tessa Petit, the coalition's executive director, said Moody cannot claim to represent Florida while abandoning Haitian Floridians. Paul Christian Namphy of the Family Action Network Movement warned of catastrophic damage to the state's economy if workers in health care, hospitality and home care are removed.

Both Republican senators have expressed sympathy without endorsing specific changes. Moody told WPLG Local 10 in late July that she had met with administration officials about reviewing cases on a "case-by-case basis," and Scott told ABC News that Congress needs to fix the immigration system as a whole, according to WLRN. A House-passed bill to extend Haitian TPS has stalled in the Senate.

Travel links cut off

The same gangs have also cut South Florida's direct air link to the Haitian capital. The Federal Aviation Administration has barred U.S. commercial flights to Port-au-Prince since gunmen fired on a Spirit Airlines jet arriving from Fort Lauderdale in November 2024. The FAA extended that ban in September, and it now runs into early March 2027, according to AP reporting. Flights to other Haitian airports, including Cap-Haitien, remain permitted.

For families in Miami-Dade and Broward who travel to see relatives, that means longer, costlier routes through other airports and overland trips through territory where gangs operate, including the roads east of the capital around Croix-des-Bouquets, where Sunday's attack took place.

What's next

The immediate focus is the fate of the four Salvadoran technicians and whether the Security Council, meeting Monday, moves to speed up troop deployments or funding for a force still at less than a third of its authorized size. The current mandate runs through March 31, 2027, and the U.N. secretary-general is required to report on progress against benchmarks.

In Florida, the attack is likely to sharpen pressure on the state's congressional delegation over Haitian deportations and the stalled Senate TPS bill, and on the administration over the pace of removal flights to a country where the government and an international force are struggling to hold ground. Haitian community organizations in Miami have said they will keep pressing Moody and Scott, while Haiti's planned elections, the first in more than a decade, will test whether the force can secure polling places in gang-held areas.