El Salvador president says bodies found in Haiti are not those of hostages

Four bodies handed over to special forces on a mission to Haiti to recover Salvadoran hostages are "not our men", El Salvador's president has said.

Nayib Bukele said a nongovernmental organisation delivered the human remains to one of Haiti's airports claiming they were four El Salvadoran air technicians, but that one of the corpses was a child's and another was wearing a different country's army uniform.

He had dispatched a military contingent, reportedly of hundreds of soldiers, on Thursday after the four men vanished after being ambushed by "heavily armed criminal groups".

The hostages had been part of the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (GSF), which is tasked with tackling worsening gang violence in Haiti.

The men had been travelling back to their camp in an armoured vehicle when they were attacked in an area of the Caribbean island nation controlled by armed groups called Croix-des-Bouquets. No gang has so far claimed responsibility.

Bukele previously said the Salvadoran military operation in Haiti had the sole purpose of returning the four men alive. Approximately 450 soldiers had so far been deployed, according to Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

Bukele said the bodies the mission had received included one of a man of "considerably greater height than that of our air technicians", a person "who was wearing part of a uniform from an army that is not ours", and that among the remains were identification cards and uniforms from other countries.

He posted pictures showing the ID card of a GSF member and a corresponding national ID card from Chad in Africa.

Kaynak: BBC News World RSS (Açık Basın / Haber Servisi)