More than 2,000 Salvadoran troops have been deployed to Haiti after an ambush left four military personnel missing.

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El Salvador has deployed more than 2,000 military personnel to Haiti in a mission to recover four soldiers missing since an ambush near Port-au-Prince, with President Nayib Bukele saying the operation could also be used to dismantle the country’s armed gangs.

RELATED: Haiti: Anti-Gang Force Confirms Finding Remains, Bukele Denies Those to Be Salvadoran Missing Military

“If we defeated the gangs here in El Salvador, we can defeat them there,” Bukele told reporters Thursday during an official visit by Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori. He said, however, that El Salvador would withdraw the same day if the four missing military aviation technicians were returned alive.

The Salvadoran Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the deployment involved more than 2,000 members of the country’s armed forces and was part of a large-scale operation backed by several countries and international organizations.

Pèp ayisyen,

Nou prèske fin deplwaye sòlda nou yo ak ekipman nou yo sou tè Ayiti. Sa a se pa yon operasyon kont pèp ayisyen an, ni yon envazyon peyi Ayiti. Nou pa yon gwo pisans. Nou pa gen okenn enterè ni pou nou vin domine pèp ayisyen an, ni pou nou mete men sou richès Ayiti.… pic.twitter.com/AZ1XvdeJje

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) October 29, 2026

Text Reads: Haitian people, We have nearly finished deploying our soldiers and equipment on Haitian soil. This is not an operation against the Haitian people, nor an invasion of the country of Haiti. We are not a great power. We have no interest in coming to dominate the Haitian people, nor in laying hands on Haiti’s wealth. We are a modest country that is developing. The only thing we want is for our four aviation technicians to return home. And we’re giving the gangs a lesson—these gangs that make the Haitian people suffer, that kill people the population loves, that prevent them from living a normal, free life, without fear. It’s almost just us footing the bill for this operation. Even though we receive a bit of logistical help from a few other countries, it’s with our own modest funds that we’re covering 90% of the expenses. It costs us dearly, but we’ve learned from our own suffering: justice and peace have no price. We went through the same suffering that Haiti is going through today. We lived through a nightmare that was even more horrific than what the Haitian people are enduring right now. We know what that means: living in fear, not trusting politicians, not believing anyone who promises to help you. Because no one came to help us, and those who did come didn’t have good intentions in their hearts. But we managed to escape it. After 200 years of suffering, finally we’re living in peace, and today we are the safest country on the continent. We didn’t come to Haiti to make money, because no one is paying us to do it. We came to Haiti to fight against the wicked. But here’s what I’m asking of you: trust us, pray to the one true God, and ask Him to heal Haiti. “If at that time my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, where I am, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 Help us help Haiti. And when our mission is finished, we’ll return home. Perhaps the next generation of Haitians will remember us as friends who came to help one day.

Bukele rejected suggestions that the deployment amounted to an invasion, insisting that his government had no intention of occupying Haiti or asserting control over its population. In a post on X earlier Thursday, he said the mission had received authorization at both national and international levels and was focused on rescuing the missing personnel alive.

He also vowed to confront the gangs responsible for their abduction, arguing that Salvadoran forces knew how to deal with criminal organizations of this kind. Bukele described the confrontation as a battle between good and evil, saying his government stood on the side of good.

El Salvador had already been participating in the Gang Suppression Force (GSF), but its involvement in Haiti’s security crisis deepened after an ambush on Oct. 18 on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. The attack targeted a vehicle carrying four Salvadoran military personnel, who have been missing since the incident.

The Salvadoran contingent includes special forces personnel and represents the largest deployment by a single country in Haiti since the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) ended in 2017. The UN mission operated in the country from 2004 to 2017.

Reports circulated last Saturday that human remains potentially belonging to the four missing personnel had been found. Bukele dismissed those reports.

Bukele has maintained that recovering the four personnel alive is the operation’s primary objective and said their return would prompt the immediate withdrawal of Salvadoran forces.

Ex-energy secretary Ed Miliband’s agenda appears undermined as money is diverted from renewables to defence

Britain is unlikely to hit its targets on green heating after the cuts announced by John Healey this week, experts have warned, as critics of Ed Miliband claim the former energy secretary’s green agenda is being dismantled.

The chancellor unveiled more than £3bn worth of cuts to the energy department’s budget this week, much of which will pay for higher defence spending.

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© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Written by Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions

Security tensions between Japan and China are escalating while the former strengthens its long-range strike capabilities with American support.

Washington and Tokyo’s latest moves to reinforce their military presence along the so-called first island chain also mark another step in the broader US-China strategic rivalry across the Indo-Pacific region.

Originally conceived as a Cold War US defensive perimeter (stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines), the first island chain is increasingly becoming the centerpiece of an elaborate American-led military architecture designed to constrain Beijing’s growing maritime power.

The recent agreement between Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to implement an “effective denial defense” along that chain illustrates the shift. They also pledged continued cooperation on ammunition production for a potentially prolonged conflict.

During the Keen Sword 2027 exercises now underway, US and Japanese forces plan to deploy mobile missile systems, including American system NMESIS, on Yonaguni Island near Taiwan. Tokyo has already deployed domestically developed long-range (anti-ship) missiles capable of reaching China’s coastal areas.

The wider context is hard to miss. In November 2025 Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi  made a statement linking a Taiwan contingency to Japan’s own survival, which triggered sharp Chinese protests and a cascade of diplomatic, economic, and maritime frictions.

Beijing then restricted dual-use exports to Japan, while coast guard vessels and radar incidents added to the pressure.

As commentator Oliver Griffin puts it, Beijing views Japan’s buildup as a drift toward neo-militarism.

From Tokyo’s perspective, China’s expanding naval reach makes these steps necessary. This is therefore a classic security dilemma. Measures one side takes to feel “safer” make the other feel less secure, prompting further responses.

The first island chain is both a barrier and a gateway. As expert Simone Chiusa  notes, Chinese vessels seeking access to the open Western Pacific must navigate strategic chokepoints through its straits.

The strategic importance of these chokepoints illustrates Alfred Thayer Mahan’s classic sea-power theory: control over key maritime routes and positions remains central to great-power rivalry.

American and Japanese planners see distributed missiles and interdiction systems as deterrence by denial. Beijing sees preparations to restrict its access.

The paradox is clear enough: the more Washington and Tokyo seek to reinforce deterrence, the more Beijing may perceive “encirclement” and accelerate its own capabilities.

Japan’s southwestern islands are thereby becoming an operational frontier of sorts rather than a mere defensive perimeter. An alliance designed primarily to protect Japanese territory then gradually becomes an instrument for projecting power into a Taiwan-related contingency.

As I wrote in May 2026, regarding US missile deployments in the Philippines, Washington’s actions near Taiwan fuel Chinese fears of a containment architecture involving Japan, the Philippines, and Australia. The pattern continues.

China’s maritime-industrial growth has become central to allied planning. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Chinese shipbuilding capacity (measured by gross tonnage) exceeds that of the United States – by a factor of over 200, according to a 2023 US naval intelligence estimate.

Joint Sino-Russian submarine patrols further signal a new maritime era of coordination that certainly complicates American assumptions of uncontested sea control.

Yet the contest is no longer confined to the first island chain. A Japanese Self-Defense Force colonel has proposed a second-island-chain air bridge linking Japan and Australia (with US participation) for logistics and reinforcement – the reasoning being that China’s lengthening maritime strike reach now threatens operations farther into the Pacific.

Some American analysts warn that “pulling back to the second chain” would be strategic folly, while advocates of strategic restraint see a forward approach as intensifying insecurity.

For Japan, the predicament is particularly delicate. Tokyo is becoming more indispensable to Washington’s regional planning at the very moment when Japanese strategists worry about possible US-China accommodation under President Trump’s “transactional” approach.

The alliance security dilemma is real enough: fear of “abandonment” coexists with fear of entrapment in a Taiwan conflict. Japanese policymakers are of course not passive instruments. They act on their own threat perceptions while navigating uncertainty about long-term American commitments.

Gray-zone pressures add another layer. Coast guard patrols and incremental assertions of jurisdiction challenge the utility of high-end missile deployments – designed mainly for conventional scenarios.

Ultimately, efforts to preserve the existing “balance” in the Indo-Pacific may contribute to the very competition that makes that balance harder to sustain.

The American response to China’s rise has largely been to reinforce military alliances and expand forward deployments, risking an increasingly self-perpetuating cycle of militarization rather than fostering regional stability.

Washington is transforming Japan into a more central component of its forward maritime architecture – even as Beijing’s growing capabilities render that very architecture more contested. The risk here is that the cycle of reinforcement and reaction leaves all parties less secure than before.

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The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division is investigating mysterious freezer and refrigerator malfunctions that spoiled food at military bases across the U.S. amid concerns the outages may have been caused by a cyberattack.

Army CID’s Cyber Field Office is working with the Defense Commissary Agency and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service to determine what caused the refrigeration failures at military commissaries in August, an Army CID spokesperson confirmed to Fox News.

Investigators are also working with French law enforcement to understand a series of refrigeration outages in Europe as authorities examine whether the incidents could be connected.

FRENCH SUPERMARKETS FACE MILLIONS IN LOSSES AFTER CYBERATTACK HITS REFRIGERATORS NATIONWIDE

The story was first reported by Reuters. 

In late August, at least six commissaries, on-base stores where military personnel buy food, suddenly experienced refrigeration malfunctions.

Fort Huachuca in Arizona said in an Aug. 26 Facebook post that its refrigeration units "went into defrost mode" overnight.

"ALL freezers went into defrost mode – ALL frozen food has spoiled," the base said.

AN AI CYBERATTACK COULD TURN OFF AMERICA'S LIGHTS BEFORE WASHINGTON EVEN UNDERSTANDS WHY

Other affected facilities include F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island, Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, Travis Air Force Base Commissary in California and Fort Irwin in California.

In at least one case, refrigeration units were set to higher temperatures overnight rather than simply turning off, Reuters reported. 

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Several weeks ago, a cyberattack targeted hundreds of French supermarkets, with hackers manipulating refrigerators to reach temperatures of 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature spike spoiled large quantities of food and sparked fires across Europe.

The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed the cyberattack, describing it as a "large-scale" assault that affected several major food retailers across the country. 

Fox News Digital's Robert McGreevy contributed to this report.