Shortly after El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced a military operation Wednesday to rescue four Salvadoran aviation technicians kidnapped in conflict-ridden Haiti, reports late last week said 100 special forces operators from the Central American country had been deployed.

The Miami Herald and the AP News reported Friday that El Salvador had deployed 100 special forces operators to Haiti to rescue the aviation technicians. By the weekend, unconfirmed footage had surfaced showing what appeared to be intense confrontations between the special forces and Haitian gangs.

Unconfirmed footage circulating on X:

"We have already finished with the gangs in El Salvador, and we can finish with you too," Bukele wrote Wednesday on X, addressing gangs in Creole and demanding the safe return of the four aviation technicians.

The rescue mission comes as gangs have expanded their control beyond Haiti's capital, complicating efforts to organize overdue nationwide elections.

The UN authorized the deployment of up to 5,550 security personnel and more than 50 civilian staff last year in an effort to dismantle the command and control structures of the gangs.

More than 1,000 people were killed and over 100 kidnapped between July and September, according to UN data.